The List
by Willow Breeze the first
Summary: It happens every September- THE LIST is posted all over school. Two girls are picked from each grade. One is named the prettiest, one the ugliest. The girls chosen become the centre of attention, each reacting differently to the experience. This year's victims Monika, Felicity, Felka, Madeline, Alice, Francine, Julchen and Elizaveta struggle with the judgement of their peers.
1. Prologue

**The List**

 **FRESHMEN**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Otherwise know as Manika

 _ **Prettiest:**_

FELICITY VARGAS

Bonus points for overcoming family genetics

 **SOPHOMORES**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Fake nails, Fake hair, Fake personality, Fake boyfriend

 _ **Prettiest:**_

MADELINE WILLIAMS

The girl next door has never looked better.

 **JUNIORS**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

ALICE KIRKLAND

Being smart doesn't excuse being ugly inside and out.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Who doesn't like a pretty French girl, non?

 **SENIORS**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

How does it feel, being on the other side of the coin?

 _ **Prettiest:**_

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Clearly the best makeover in the history of H.E.T.A Highschool.

Signed: The Author 2017

For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount H.E.T.A. High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade.

This year was no different.

Roughly four hundred copies of the list were hanging in various locations around the school. One was stuck above the urinal in first-floor bathroom, several covered the notice board detailing the musical, one was tucked between pamphlets for dating violence and depression in the nurse's office. The List was affixed to locker doors, inside classroom desks, stuck to bathroom doors. It was everywhere.

The bottom corner of each copy had been stamped by an embossing stamp, leaving behind the scar of Mount H.E.T.A. High rendered as a line drawing before the science labs were added. This stamp had graced every graduation diploma before it was stolen from the principle's office decades ago. It was now a piece of mythic contraband used to discourage mimics or fakes.

No one knew for sure who writes the list each year, or how the responsibility is passed along, but secrecy had not impended the tradition if anything the anonymity made The List absolute, impartial, unbiased.

And so, with each new list, the labels reduce the female populace down to three clear groups.

Prettiest.

Ugliest.

And everyone else.

This morning, before the bell, every girl will learn if her name is on the list or not.

The ones who aren't wonder, jealously, pityingly, what the experience would be like.

The eight girls who are chosen won't have a choice.


	2. Chapter 1

**Foreword: This concept is stolen from the book The List by Siobhan Vivian. It's an excellent book and I would recommend it to everyone. Also please be patient with my writing this is the first fanfic I've ever published. That being said on with the first chapter!**

.

 **FRESHMEN**

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika rubbed out another equation, no that one was also wrong. Damn it Feli! She knew Felicity wasn't good at math but she had never imagined to what extent. She took out her pen and held it to the paper, ready to write out in excruciating detail the correct method, when the car hit a pothole. Her hand jerked and ink covered the other nine questions she'd just written out.

"Julchen!" She snapped turning towards her elder sister.

"Huh? What" Julchen said detachably.

"Are you feeling alright? You've barely said anything this whole time." And it was true. It was typical for their car rides to school to full of the albino rambling on about people at school with 'awesome' and 'unawesome' used liberally, but this morning Julchen had been quiet, except for cursing at other drivers, here again 'unawesome' was used and a fair amount of honking.

"What do you mean? Of course I've been talking. I am awesome!"

Monika raised an eyebrow, her sister never ended a statement with 'I am awesome' unless she was uncomfortable.

"No! Stop giving me that look! Ugh fine you win, West"

Monika flushed, she really hated that nickname.

"Well you know how most people in this school are totally unawesome, right? Well they continue being unawesome today, in fact today they are especially unawesome! There'll be a list, and it's fucking stupid, but it'll rank people based on their appearance and I'll be on it. Just don't listen to some of the things said about me, okay? You'll be fine, just don't let what people say about me affect you!" Julchen gabbled all of this then turned back to the wheel. "Fick! Green light!"

"Wait! What!"

"Geeze Monnie, calm down! This happens every year. Don't make a big deal about it"

"But it's wrong and it needs to be stopped-"

"-Monika, shut up"

Silence fell until Julchen inserted her car between two others in the school parking lot.

"Just don't make a big deal about The List, West. Okay?"

Monika looked into Julchen's pleading face. Julchen always asked for things but she never did it with this much sincerity.

"Okay, Julchen."

It still didn't sit right with her but if it made Julchen happy then she would agree to her request.

After stowing away her, now ruined, notes for Felicity and slinging her bag on her back, she hurried over to the stairs to the main entrance.

The main entrance of Mount H.E.T.A. High was an extravagant display of former wealth. The school used to be private but due to demographics had to become public. The entrance showed this history. The archway over the door, the wide marble stairs leading up to it, the sudo Roman pillars supporting the overhang, all these had been graffitied time and time over and cigarette butts decorated the stairs no matter how many times the janitor cleaned them and pages were stuck to the pillars… Wait that one was new.

Intrigued, Monika walked up and looked at the pages, half expecting an ad for another one of Felicity's clubs. It was not.

 _ **Ugliest:**_

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika stared. That was she could do. Stare.

She was suddenly acutely aware of everyone standing around, chatting. Were they looking at her? Were they whispering about her? She could feel a burning in her eyes. She tried to squash the thoughts but..

Otherwise known as Manika

Someone broke into peels of laughter and it was just too much.

She rushed into the school, still clutching the piece of paper. The pages were everywhere and everyone seemed to be gathered around them.

Manika

She was in the bathroom, sitting on a toilet, crying. She felt angry, angry at Julchen for not preparing her better, angry at the author for writing the list, and angry at herself for getting so upset. Shouldn't she be able to simply shrug it off and move on and yet..

Manika

She couldn't seem to let go.

. .

FELICITY VARGAS

Felicity hummed contentedly to herself, ignoring the dirty look Lovina gave her. Lovina had just had a long night, she and Felicity had been waitressing last night at Café Roma, their Grandpa's restaurant that they lived over. Felicity liked being a waitress, she got to chat with new people and see the chefs make food and sometimes she could cook pasta for their costumers because everyone said she made the best pasta. Lovina didn't like it. She really didn't like it, the only reason she did it at all was because Grandpa Roma threatened to kick her out of the apartment.

Felicity craned her neck looking around the bus, to see if she could spot any of her friends. Monika was driven to school by Julchen, Emily was like a bear in the morning and Lilli walked to school with Vash. She sighed and glanced back at Lovina who was leaning against the window, earphones in.

"Lovi. Lovi. Looooooooooovi."

"What!" Lovina snapped, pulling an earphone out and glaring.

"Um…. I forgot."

Lovina stared at her younger sister.

"You're an idiot"

"Lovina! I didn't see you there!"

Up popped up the head of Lovina's not-boyfriend Antonio, known to most as Toni. Lovina insists that they have no romantic relationship and Felicity believed her but most of the school didn't. Most were surprised when Antonio started dating Francine and assumed Lovina would be upset, even though they both protest that they have more of a brother-sister relationship. Felicity liked Antonio. He was nice and cheerful.

"Lovi, are you okay? I mean you know what day it-"

"I'm fine, bastard"

"I mean I know you say-"

"Just stop!"

"Um… alright"

Felicity stared at her sister and Antonio completely lost in the conversation, although that wasn't particularly unusual.

"Huh.. oh we're here." Antonio said, pointing out the bus window.

"Urgh, get me off this fucking bus"

Antonio gave Felicity a look, she mouthed back "Waitressing" and he nodded back in understanding.

Lovina rushed out past Felicity, who happily skipped after her. She bounced off the bus and spotted Lilli and Emily standing at freshmen island, the spot where freshmen gather outside school by the large oak tree although no one ever went to the bench under the tree itself. That was Alice's bench.

"Ciao Lilli, Emily" Felicity called running up to them "Have you seen Monika?"

The other two girls exchanged a silent conversation before Emily said "No. Have you seen this?" and handed her a page.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

FELICITY VARGAS

Bonus points for overcoming genetics

"Um.. I don't get it"

"It's.. uh.. a tradition. Uh.. big brother told me about it."

Felicity looked at the delicate Swiss girl. Lilli looked distinctly uncomfortable. Emily decided to take up the mantle.

"Some random girl makes a demeaning list, naming a pretty and ugly girl and people take it way too seriously"

"Oh.. um.. I get it!"

She looked down at The List again. Monika was on it. Well Monika was really strong and tough she wouldn't mind it. The thing about genetics was cruel to Lovina but, well, Lovina didn't mention The List at all so she probably didn't care.

She looked back at Emily and Lilli, the former looked indifferent and the later nervous.

"Well, this is a good I guess"

She was the prettiest girl, out of all of the freshmen. A smile slowly grew on her face. She carefully folds up The List and placed it in his bag.

. .

 **Monika: nyo!Germany**

 **Julchen: nyo!Prussia**

 **Felicity: nyo!Italy**

 **Lovina: nyo!Romano**

 **Lilli: Liechtenstein**

 **Vash: Switzerland**

 **Emily: nyo!Iceland**

 **Antonio: Spain**

 **Grandpa Roma: Rome**

 **Francine: nyo!France**

 **Alice: nyo!England**

 **Yay first chapter. So if Germany seems out of character it's because she's a teenager she's not as strong as an adult Germany. Same with Italy, while Italy has always been oblivious I imagine she'd be even worse at 14. And why does she hang out with Liechtenstein and Iceland because ….. they're in the same class and I needed Italy to have friends while Germany is crying in the bathroom. And if you're asking where is Japan well you shall see in the next chapter of The List. That would have been cooler if it was a TV announcer.**


	3. Chapter 2

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Felka chatted happily into her phone, fully aware that Toris had stopped fully listening to her but Felka wasn't the type of girl to allow something as inconsequential as that to stand in her way of explaining how her Dads' new nail varnish was just the right collection of pinks to market to young girls. She continued advertising _Łukasiewicz's_ while taking out her pocket mirror and applying a fresh coat of lipgloss with a well-practiced hand.

"And it, like, has a natural shine. So you don't have to add a layer of clear over it, you only have to, like, do several layers for it to look totally professional! And the colour is, like,-."

"Felka" Toris' rather frustrated voice managed to cut in through the tirade " I know you care about your Dads' make up company, but I'm not really the right person to talk to about it. Why don't you tell Amelia or Hedvika?"

"But, like, if we're going to Homecoming together, our outfits _need_ to be colour coordinated."

There was a sigh from the other end of the phone and the sound of paper being shuffled.

"Alright. But could you wait to tell me this when I'm not in chess club?"

"That's today? I totally didn't know."

"I told you yester-."

"You should really tell me these things."

"I do-."

"Oh the bus is pulling up to the school. Talk to you after checkers club."

"By-."

"Bye!"

Felka shoved her phone in her bag and sashayed off the bus, her heels clacking as she walked. She absentmindedly twirled a piece of blonde hair between two fingers. It was cut just like her Tata's hair, shoulder length and straight. Felka always loved that she looked like her Tata despite the fact they weren't related.

"Hedvika! Hi!" Felka called to her Czech friend.

Hedvika glanced up and waved Felka over. Her friends were standing around outside the main entrance. Privately, Felka was amused by her friend's closeness to Jakub Murgaš. Oh she claimed they were just friends, but there was no way Hedvika didn't have a crush on the Slovakian boy. Her friends milled around by the marble stairs, gossiping aimlessly about different people.

"Like, Amelia is so desperate to be on The List it's kinda sad."

"I heard that Hedvika is dating Jakub."

"We're just friends!"

"Madeline is on The List"

"Wait, seriously! But Madeline's not, like, ugly."

"No, she's the prettiest, I heard"

"No way! Someone get a copy"

The group of girls waited anxiously as Hedvika ran into the school. The chatter resumed as theories flew from girl to girl but Felka's mind was elsewhere as she watched Toris come out of the main entrance with a pretty girl, with long blonde hair and pale, smooth skin. Natalia. Felka gritted her teeth as she watched the Belarusian girl listening to Toris speak. Heels clacking, she marched up to her boyfriend with fire in her eyes.

"Hey, Toris! How was checkers club?"

Toris looked at Felka, a vaguely irritated expression on his face.

"Actually it was chess club." Natalia said, raising an eyebrow. "You should listen to Toris more often."

"Of course I, like, listen to Tori!" Felka insisted, grabbing his hand.

"I'll talk to you later, Natalia"Toris said apologetically.

Taking Toris' hand, Felka hurried back to reclaim her spot in the gossip circle as Hedvika came back at a brisk pace, not a run she didn't want to be sweaty, holding The List above her head.

"Felka, I think you should read this." She said passing the copy of The List. Felka held it in both hands in surprise.

 _ **Ugliest:**_

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Fake nails, Fake hair, Fake personality, Fake boyfriend

"This is a joke, right? This is a joke."

She looked up at each of her friends, none of whom met her eyes. She laughed, forced, unnatural. No one else laughed and she kept laughing. There was the sound of a door slamming but she kept laughing. She didn't notice she crying. Her eyes crinkled and her mouth wide open.

She opened her eyes her friends were gone. She could just see Jakub going inside the school. She gripped Toris' hand tighter.

"I'm not fake, I'm not. It's a joke. It has to be. I'm real, you're real. It's all a joke"

She stared into Toris' eyes. His eyes were so green, dark like moss while her eyes were lighter, like limes.

"You're not a fake person" He said soothingly, wrapping his arm around her waist. They stood there for a while, time blending until Toris removed his arm and looked at Felka's face.

"I have to go to class, you have a free now don't you?"

Felka nodded a response and Toris hurried into the school.

She took out her pocket mirror. Her eyes were rather bloodshot and her face looked rather lopsided and it took her a moment to realise why, she'd forgotten to put eyeliner on one of her eyes. She wondered why none of her friends had mentioned it.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

Madeline drizzled maple syrup over the freshly made pancakes. Amelia had woken up at a time that Madeline deemed far too early. Since they shared a bedroom whenever Amelia got up to shower she woke up Madeline. At first this made her extremely angry, or as angry as Madeline could be, until she realised that since she woke up early she had time to make pancakes.

Madeline fiddled with her red beret, a gift from Francine.

 _Madeline could not believe the size if Francine's house. She'd always known she was rich but never imagined a manor of this size._

" _Oh chére, come inside. I have a present for you."_

 _Francine's bedroom was the size of the whole top floor of her house._

" _Papa had a conference in Canada last weekend and I asked him to pick this up. I know how much you love Canada so I thought this is something you'd like. I know it was your birthday last week but I was busy."_

 _Lie. You saw Amelia's posts on Facebook about her birthday and remembered we're twins._

 _Francine handed Madeline a box, a scarlet ribbon wrapped around it, with a satisfied look on her face. Opening the box, Madeline was greeted by a beret, the same colour as the Canadian flag._

" _You will look trés magnifique. Let me just put it on. There. Oh it looks beautiful. Go have a look in the mirror."_

 _It was totally covering her pigtails and part of it was drooping into her eye._

" _Thanks, Francine. I really like it"_

Eventually she'd learnt how to make it coexist with her pigtails and it kept her head warm. Still she wasn't sure why she wore it everywhere. Francine crowed it was because it was such a good gift, Alice hazarded that it was because it kept her head warm, while Amelia put forward the most creditable theory, that it made her look unique.

Speaking of Amelia, there was hurried footsteps coming down the stairs, the door to the kitchen burst open and there, in all her glory, was Amelia L. Williams. She had obviously been busy. Her freshly washed and dried hair was straining against the star clips, keeping it at bay. Her face was decorated with a plentiful amount of make up, some of which Madeline recognised as her own, and Amelia was beaming.

"Are you ready to go, sis? Cause I've been waiting for ages and today of all days we do not want to be late!"

'No, you've been debating whether to use false eyelashes, not waiting for me.' Madeline thought privately.

"Yeah sure, we can go now." Madeline said quietly.

Madeline was almost always quiet, her voice only a little over a whisper. When she was younger her parents had her checked for partial deafness, thinking that was the cause of her quiet and rather unresponsive voice. But no Madeline was just timid, but sweet. Amelia on the other hand…

Madeline glanced sideways at her sister as they walked along, half listening to Amelia jabbering on about a new game Kiku got her. Well Amelia spoke as though every sentence ended in an exclamation point. It was almost impossible to get them mixed up during a conversation, unfortunately when they were young and both wore their hair in plaits, they were constantly confused. No scratch that, Madeline was constantly confused.

She was almost grateful when she had to wear glasses and Amelia didn't, and even more so when last year Amelia got her hair cut short. Mom liked the haircut, while Dad thought it a disgrace and, of course, this began yet another argument. In some of her darker moments, Madeline wished they'd just get the divorce over and done with.

She blinked something was poking her. Sighing she swatted away Amelia's hand.

"Yes, Amelia?"

"Dude, you weren't listening!"

"Sorry."

"So, as I was saying, I think that we should go shopping tomorrow for our Homecoming dresses and maybe Felka or Natalia can come with us. I am so excited for Homecoming! I heard Jett is having a party afterwards and I so want to go! I mean I haven't been invited yet but I'll probably be invited today! And I'll bring you along too!"

Madeline pushed the back gate of the school open. They lived close to H.E.T.A high so everyday they walked to the back entrance. The back gate was suitably rundown; it used to be locked every night until someone broke the lock. No one ever bothered to replace it. There was grass and dandelions growing all around the gate where the Tarmac had worn away and cracked.

The sisters crossed over grassy field, Amelia continuing to discuss her plans for Saturday while Madeline watched the other students walking around and chatting. She watched Vladimir Popescu run across the field to Alice's bench. Amelia grabbed Madeline's hand, hard, and Madeline had to resist her urge to roll her eyes. At a Halloween party last year, Vladimir had dressed up as a vampire and had terrified Amelia to the point that even now, a year later, she was still uncomfortable around him. Madeline didn't mind him too much, although she did think that he was weird. After hanging around a bit with Alice, she'd gotten to realise Vladimir and Luka aren't scary just, er, odd.

Amelia happily kicked open the back doors to the school, not once ceasing her monologue. They started down the corridor, Amelia striding down the centre of the hallway, while Madeline awkwardly ducked and swerved around juniors, unlocking their lockers.

"Amelia. Wait." Madeline 'called' after her twin and then tripped over someone's bag.

"Oh I'm so sorry." She said hastily to the irritated boy. "Amelia" But her twin had continued to move on, still speaking, not even noticing Madeline's absence.

"Oh maple"

Madeline continued her usual walk of shame to her locker, thankful that Amelia's locker wasn't anywhere near her locker. She knew exactly what Amelia thought of her, that she was socially inept, that she was unfortunate, that she should be pitied. She hated that she was viewed as the lesser twin.

Sighing, she began to input her combination into her locker. What was her first class again? It was AP US History wasn't it, or was it World Literature. A piece of paper fluttered out of her locker. Confused she went to pick it up. Francine's locker was beside hers, maybe it was a love confession placed into the wrong office. It wouldn't be the first time. And yes there was the name Bonnefoy and, wait, Williams? Right, The List. Out of sheer curiosity looked at it.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

MADELINE WILLIAMS

The girl next door has never looked better.

Madeline stared at The List. She was the prettiest. She was. Madeline Williams. She felt a small smile break onto her face. She was always the lesser twin but maybe she'd be noticed now. Maybe she'd be the one invited to Jett's party, bringing her lesser twin.

 **..**

 **Felka: nyo! Poland**

 **Toris: Lithuania**

 **Hedvika: Czech Republic**

 **Amelia: nyo! America**

 **Jakub: Slovakia**

 **Madeline: nyo! Canada**

 **Natalia: Belarus**

 **Kiku: Japan**

 **Vladimir: Romania**

 **Luka: nyo! Norway**

 **Jett: Australia**

 **So I must confess, I will be very inconsistent with my updates. If you're wondering** _ **Tata**_ **is polish for Dad. This is according to google translate so grain of salt. So this is a bit longer than the last chapter.**


	4. Chapter 3

**JUNIORS**

ALICE KIRKLAND

Alice had a very simple plan for the next few years of her life. Step 1: Graduate High school without murdering anyone. Step 2: Accept a college scholarship, preferably to Harvard, Yale or Cambridge. Step 3: Graduate from college and move to the U.K. Step 4: Become a lawyer. Step 5: Never speak to anyone from Mount H.E.T.A. ever again. Luka and Vladimir being the only possible exceptions.

With this plan in mind, Alice took one day at a time and tried not to snap at people who irritated her. That person tended to be Peter, who had a fantastic ability to not read the room. Erin said it was because he was just a kid and Alice protested that when she was twelve she wasn't as bloody obnoxious as Peter.

Alice leant back on her bench and breathed out smoke. The freshmen nearby tittered and coughed pointedly, Alice ignored them. 'Freshmen Island' people called the area they gathered. Alice always found it amusing, as though freshmen had to gather together or else they'd be swept away by the older people, after all safety in numbers. Alice had once believed that.

"Hi there, Witch!" Said an annoyingly loud voice.

"Vampire."Alice replied, turning to face Vladimir who was flashing her his signature half-grin that showed off his pointy tooth. Still grinning, the blonde boy swung himself onto the bench.

"You know smoking is an awful habit." He said, red eyes flashing. People said he had red eyes because he was a vampire or because he was cursed, more reasonable people said he was an albino but dyed his hair blonde, these theories were ridiculous. Vladimir wore red contacts.

"Drinking is a worse habit."

"Smoking kills your lungs."

"Drinking kills your liver."

This easy back and forth between the two of them was a rhythm they fell into easily.

"I can last longer without a liver than I can without a lung." Vladimir retorted.

"Maybe I want it over faster." Alice joked.

Vladimir's face darkened. "Don't make jokes about that."

"…. Sorry"

"It's okay."

An awkward silence fell between them. They had an unspoken agreement, that Alice wouldn't mention suicide and Vladimir wouldn't mention her mother.

"How's Tatiana?" Alice said, desperate to end the uncomfortable absence of conversation.

"Oh she's great. She's really enjoying first grade."

"How can anyone like school?"

"Ha! That's what I said."

Unspoken forgiveness. Alice breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Oh hey look, it's Zombie." Vladimir waved happily at the approaching Luka.

"Why do you insist on using the names other people came up with?" Alice yawned.

"Because Vladimir doesn't have enough creativity to come up with his own.." Luka deadpanned. Alice laughed at Vladimir's face and Luka faintly smirked, which was her equivalent. Luka's facial expressions changed so rarely it was no wonder other students called her 'The Zombie'. The school nicknames they'd been given were stupid. Vladimir had the only appropriate one, given his tendency to dress as a vampire as parties… and dances… and at school sometimes. Vladimir really liked dressing up as a vampire for some reason. Luka being called the zombie was purely because someone had once commented that with how little she changed her facial expression was like a zombie. Which was stupid because zombies were pretty expressive in comparison. Alice resented her moniker of 'Witch'. It was even stupider than 'Zombie'.

God she couldn't wait to leave.

Luka sat down and Alice offered her a cigarette that she accepted.

"The pair of you" Vladimir said, shaking his head in mock shame.

"Because you're such a saint."

"Hypocrite"

They sat on the bench in silence, the two girls smoking, and the boy texting on his phone, music blaring from the Norwegian's phone being the only form of conversation. The nearby freshmen had doubled in size, they scream with laughter, completely oblivious to the sanctuary of three misfits. Alice felt the heat on her fingers; her cigarette had burned down to the filter. She casually flicked her fingers, sending the butt soaring towards the simpering girls.

"Gah! You could have lit me on fire!" squawked a pale girl with red hair.

"You could stand further away." Alice said sweetly "Or shut up."

"Sorry, Alice." She giggled, shaking a piece of paper " This is just really funny."

"That's how inside jokes normally are." Luka snarks "Funny to those on the inside, annoying as all hell to the rest of the world" Alice and Vladimir laughed at her barb.

After sharing plotting looks with the rest of her girlfriends. "Well here, let us explain."

As soon as the paper is dropped in her lap, Alice realised what it is. The bloody list. It made her want to vomit every year, watching the girls in her school evaluate and objectifying each other, tear someone down, build someone else down, then tear them down again. It's sad. It's pathetic. It's disrespectful. It's…

… her name

ALICE KIRKLAND

Being smart doesn't excuse being ugly inside and out.

"Come on Olivia, we need to go" one of the girls said and the freshmen all scurried off.

"What is that?" Vladimir said, craning his neck to see what was on the page.

"It's.. it's .. It's The bloody List." She said shoving it at the blonde boy.

It was sucker punch to the gut, the surprise hurt worse than the insult, and there was no chance to hit back.

Luka pressed something into Alice's hand. It was Luka's lighter. After a few clicks, a flame hisses up. She held it under the corner of the page. It was nice, watching The List burn, even though they knew there were hundreds of other copies hanging all around the school.

Everyone in the school would be staring at her, wanting to see her upset, hurt, weak. The tough girl knocked down, forced to admit she cared about their opinions.

There was a hand on her shoulders. Alice looked up, into Luka's purple eyes.

"Don't take it personally. They want your reaction"

"Yeah, you're not ugly. You're averagely pretty."

Alice and Luka gave Vladimir a look, and he shrugged.

"Would you rather I lied? I'm telling the truth, unlike that piece of _rahat._ "

"Look maybe your Hungarian boyfriend speaks Romanian but we don't."

"Hey, Hey, Hey, he's Bulgarian. Nothing good has ever come out of Hungary."

Alice watched as her two friends bickered back and forth. It took an edge off her rage but still, she wanted to go in there and make a statement.

She rummaged around in her bag, took out a permanent marker and then pushed back her fringe.

"Write 'Ugly' on my forehead."

Vladimir grinned, took the marker and wrote on her forehead. The smell of the marker made her woozy, it tickled as the nib dug into her skin.

The three of them turned and walked into the school. People saw the word as she walked, but only for a second. Once the people in the halls saw what on her face, they quickly found another place to set their eyes. The List was so powerful, so absolute, so perfect, and yet no one wanted to deal with it on her face.

Bunch of cowards.

..

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Francine owned her own car. This singled her out. Most people borrowed their parents' cars, if that. So owning her own car pushed Francine higher up the pecking order. Of course there were some who thought that a bad thing, but Francine knew she was always destined to be popular.

Green light. She accelerated.

It wasn't just because she was pretty, although that helped; no it wasn't that because plenty of girls fit those criteria. No it was because she was rich, she was half French, and her father was the owner of one of the best and most successful fashion brands in the world. The name _Bonnefoy_ carried such weight that even if Francis Bonnefoy wasn't her father she probably would have pretended they were related.

Right hand turn. Francine flicked on her indicator.

So of course her social standing was practically secure but Francine was never one to not fully advance herself, (at least socially, as for her grades… well) so she knew what needed to happen. She needed to be on The List.

Parking spot. Her parking spot. No one else would dare put their car there. Even when she was absent, her spot remained vacant. She quickly reversed into the gap between a massive minivan and tiny mini.

Francine checked her reflection in the mirror one last time, adjusted her hair, straightened her skirt and strode out into the parking lot.

She spotted Julchen's car. They used to take it to school everyday and then out to wherever the three of them would spend the afternoon. It was a battered second hand thing, that required at least three attempts to get the engine running before it started, the leather in the chairs was almost entirely worn away or cracked, one of the windows wouldn't open, and Julchen loved it. It said a lot about her.

She swished by the car into the school. Angelique always met her at the comfy chairs, two large armchairs that must have been there since the school was founded. Legend had it that there used to be five chairs but someone either burnt and/or stole the other three, the story varied from person to person, leaving two large chairs facing each other on the first floor landing. The chairs used to be for just sophomores, but now they were for juniors of a certain standing.

"Fran!" Cried Angelique, embracing the brunette. Angelique's parents were from some tiny island no one had heard of or cared about, and had immigrated to America in search of work. All it meant to Francine was, she had someone to call her best friend who was in her grade. Angelique was a better friend than Julchen anyway.

"Fran, you look so pretty! It's certified!"

"Do you mean?"

"Yes!"

Angelique thrust a page towards Francine who calmly, maturely looked at it, then squealed with delight.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Who doesn't like a pretty French girl, non?

After she was finished basking in the glory of seeing her name on The List, she turned to Angelique.

"Have you seen Toni?"

"Um no actually."

"I did."

The two girls turned to see Monica Bonnefoy. Francine silently thanked God for her second cousin.

"He saw The List then ran off. I just passed him talking to Lovina. I think she was upset about the genetics comment."

"Oh please, it wasn't that bad." Francine defended.

Monica shrugged. " Anyway congratulations. I hope you're happy with yourself." She said in a low voice. Before Francine could reply, she'd spun on her heel and stalked off, leaving Francine surrounded by girls happily chatting away to her, desperate for her approval. This was exactly what she'd always wanted.

And yet where was Antonio. She didn't really want to admit it but it was odd for her boyfriend to not be here.

..

 **Peter: Sealand**

 **Erin: Ireland (not the only oc in this fic)**

 **Tatiana: nyo! Moldova**

 **Francis: France**

 **Angelique: Seychelles**

 **Monica: Monaco**

 **I said I was going to be irregular. I swear I rewrote Alice's section three times and I'm still not satisfied. Oh well C'est le vie. Also, yeah, magic trio. In most high school aus this group isn't even an option so I wanted to explore the dynamic. Also Monica will be playing a key role in Francine's story. And I just realised we have Monica and Monika. This will get confusing.**

 **Alice's siblings are only going to be Sealand and Ireland. It will be too confusing and unlikely with six Kirkland siblings running around, four of them OCs, so I made an executive described to cut it down to three.**

 **Also if anyone guesses who Olivia is gets digital cookies. Just a throwaway character for the situation.**


	5. Chapter 4

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen watched her schwester walk off towards the school. She would be okay, Julchen was certain. There was nothing she'd done to warrant being on The List and she wasn't ugly. In Julchen's eyes she would always be baby West.

Fritz had tried to teach her German, as a sign of her heritage but four-year old Julchen couldn't quite pronounce 'schwester' and would say 'shwest' and the nickname stuck.

Monika looked so small against the grey hulking building. Julchen had never wanted her to go to Mount H.E.T.A but her parents had insisted against all her protests of how Monika's nerd school would be a far better place for her, or hell, even the competing (and loosing) School ATW would be better, but no, her protests weren't headed and now her parents thought her embarrassed of Monnie.

Julchen started, realising that she'd been just staring at the edge of the parking lot. Sighing she headed off towards the back entrance. Her locker was nearer there and she would run into less people.

People were watching her. Julchen used to like it. Hell she still sorta liked it, it made her feel important, powerful, except she knew why their eyes were on her and it wasn't because they found her awesome.

Legends of her epic blow out and later revenge spree had spread far and wide. Julchen had almost fainted when she'd heard Monnie had befriended a Vargas, even if Felicity wasn't around during it Lovina was and Antonio definitely was. It was a relief to hear that Lovina refused to associate with West. Julchen didn't really regret her actions, Bella's hair was still mud brown. The advertising on that hair dye sure hasn't been wrong. But on the other hand if Monnie, or gott forbid her parents, found out why she no longer hung out with, well anyone, there would be hell to pay.

The students in the hallway cleared a path to her locker, although no one left the corridor, everyone wanted to see Julchen's reaction. Whether it was angry or upset as all other ugly girls were, well they'd certainly remember this reaction.

She reached her locker. She barely glanced at the page stuck to her door, just enough to see the words JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT.

Showtime.

Her feet started drumming on the floor, creating a drumroll. And then she spun around, holding The List aloft and cheered as loudly as she could, which was very loud. She then ran down the corridor high- fiving everyone she could. Most people were too astounded to raise their hands, but that wasn't important. What was important was that Julchen wasn't beat, she never would.

…

Julchen wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up on the servant stairs, so called because they were the narrowest and most dimly lit stairs. She had attempted to visit every part of the school, she wanted as many people as possible to see her reaction and spread the word. Still there wasn't really any point of being on the servant stairs.

She began heading down the stairs but she spotted Antonio and Lovina farther down the stairs. They were sitting side-by-side, Lovina looked upset and Antonio, livid. Julchen couldn't admit but be curious. Some words fluttered up the stairs 'The List', 'Felicity' and 'Sadik' were the ones Julchen could make out. She knew Antonio was close to Lovina and how they'd met, and it was that anniversary but why… but why

FELICITY VARGAS

Bonus points for overcoming family genetics

Oh Scheiße. Julchen didn't like Lovina, she never had but scheiße. That was harsh. Who else was attacked like Lovina? Was Kirkland? the Bondervicks? Yeketerina? Monnie? If they attacked Monnie, she'd.. she'd

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Otherwise know as Manika

.

.

.

Oh they were dead. They were so dead. But how could she destroy them all. The May plan was the ultimate plan to demean them, to be a true Prussian warrior and it didn't work. It destroyed her, although Elizaveta said it was the final nail in the coffin, so how could she make them regret ever daring to attack Monika Beilschmidt.

..

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Elizaveta had Chopin on her iPod. It had been on it for longer than she'd care to admit. When she was a sophomore, she'd been wandering around corridors during a free and heard some of the most beautiful piano music. She'd stood outside the music room listening to the person playing inside. Next week she went back to hear more. It became part of her routine. Every Thursday fifth period she would hover outside the music room to listen in on the piano. It wasn't until several months of this did she learn who she was listening to.

" _Alright, I know you're there. Why don't you come inside? You can hear the music better then."_

 _Elizaveta had noticed the door had been ajar, she must have been spotted through the crack. Should she come inside and risk ridicule or flee and pretend this had never happened._

" _I know you've been there for several weeks. The music is better without a door in the way,"_

 _Elizaveta shyly pushed open the door and walked in. Behind the piano she could make out a dark mop of hair and glasses but not much else. The pianist slowly came into view as she approached and it was Roderich Edelstein. The stuffy loser who had no friends and Julchen readily mocked. Oh god, she'd been spying on the music nerd, now he probably thought she was going to mock him or, even worse, had a crush on him._

 _He looked equally surprised. Ofcourse he was, she was Elizaveta Héderváry, tough girl, best friend to Julchen, regular mocker of Roderich Edelstien._

" _It's very good music."_

" _Thank you."_

" _How long have you been playing."_

" _Since I was four."_

" _Oh"_

 _It was the first time they'd spoken to each other alone and it was dreadfully awkward. It was a relief when Roderich went back to playing._

 _The music was just a wonderful as before._

Later he told her the piece he was playing when he first called her in was Chopin, she had been embarrassingly attached to it since. It was part of her morning routine, every day, on the school bus she'd listen to it while drinking her coffee. It was a time of peace in her hectic day. It also always reminded her of why she'd made all those decisions. Elizaveta missed Roderich. He was off in Europe for September, on some musical course he'd gotten a scholarship for. He would be back next Monday and Elizaveta couldn't wait.

Elizaveta glanced around the bus as she sipped her coffee. A sophomore was yelling at Antonio. Antonio was something of an enigma. Elizaveta had been certain that he was gay. She had been so sure. And now he was dating a girl a year younger than himself, and it wasn't as if Elizaveta disliked Francine but…

Felka was yapping away loudly on her phone. She was so loud that Elizaveta could clearly hear her through her earphones. Elizaveta didn't try to hear all the gossip if the younger grades, but Felka was extremely vocal about her relationship. Elizaveta would give it two more months at most.

…

Elizaveta idly played with her pen, and wondered how someone could make World War 1 boring but apparently Mrs Fitzsimmons could. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Elizaveta covertly checked her surveillance, concluded it was minimal and checked her phone.

 **Bella: Omg have you seen The List!?**

 **You: Didn't feel like seeing people be humiliated.**

 **Bella: What! Not even Julchen?**

 **You: Ok you got a point but she's already been humiliated**

 **Bella: My hair is still brown**

 **You: Why don't you dye it?**

 **Bella: It would SERIOUSLY damage my hair**

 **Bella: Anyway your on the list!**

 **You: REALLY?**

 **Bella: YES**

 **Bella sent image**

Elizaveta quickly opened the image. It was a picture of a page balanced on Bella's lap. The picture was a slightly blurred but she could still make out the text.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Clearly the best makeover in the history of H.E.T.A Highschool.

Elizaveta felt her glow of happiness undercut by the sarcastic remark. It was as though The Author was trying to bring up the past three years. Yeah three years were quite along but she had never done anything too bad and she had done some good. No one else could have reigned in Julchen as well as she had.

She was wrenched out of her thoughts by the loud ring of an announcement over the intercom.

" _THIS IS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL GIRLS ON 'THE LIST'."_ The class could practically hear the quotation marks. _"CAN FELICITY VARGAS, MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT, MADELINE WILLIAMS, FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ, FRANCINE BONNEFOY, ALICE KIRKLAND, GILLIAN BEILSCHMIDT AND ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY REPORT TO MY OFFICE AFTER SCHOOL TODAY. THANK YOU."_

The class's eyes were on Elizaveta. She rolled her eyes as the bell went and they began packing her books away. The rest of her classes passed in a blur. She had lunch with Bella and Yeketerina and the other girls. They all seemed to want to talk about The List. Her lack of interest was attributed to her 'wild' past. Yeketerina also wasn't particularly interested but of course she was a kooky foreigner.

She walked casually to the principle Germania's office. Most of the other girls had already arrived. The office was small and quite cramped, without enough room for the usual divisions to occur. Felka was sitting on one of two chairs; it was pulled up close to the desk. The other chair was occupied by a blonde girl in a red beret. Francine Bonnefoy was hovering near Beret-girl. Alice Kirkland was leaning against the radiator. The Beilschmidts were off by a corner with another freshman, probably Felicity Vargas. Although perhaps it would be more accurate to say Julchen was in the corner, Monika was trying to verbally pull her sister out. It was actually quite sweet. Elizaveta leaned against the overstuffed bookshelf.

Principle Germania looked up at them all from her desk. "Good, you're all here." She eyed all of them. Principle Germania was not an old woman and was could be quite pretty but she had donned the mantle of middle age early. "Now you all know why you are here. Today something terrible has happened to all of you."

"All of us?" Interjected Felka in disbelief.

"Yes, some of us don't really have any issues to worry about." Julchen muttered casting Felka a dirty look.

"Hey, you know I'm, like, not exactly enjoying being called ugly and false when clearly there are uglier people that _should_ have been picked."

"Are you implying that mon chére, Madeline, shouldn't be the prettiest because I believe so. She is sweet and real."Francine swiftly inserted herself into the arguement because she always had to be involved.

"Well clearly you shouldn't have been chosen, Franny. Since you're clearly not sweet and are as fake as plastic." Alice joined in, never missing an opportunity to insult Francine.

Julchen sniggered.

"Enough." Principle Germania cried over the bickering. "I meant what I said when I said that something terrible has happened to each and everyone of you. And I will try to find out who did this. I promise this, I will stop this behaviour."

"Oh well that's nice." Julchen said suddenly. She began casually walking towards the door "Can we go now?"

"Please sit down, Julchen"

"Why? What else can you say? You're going to try to stop The List. Good luck with that. You might as well cancel the Homecoming dance, same principle. So I don't feel like listening to this any longer."

The door closing seemed too loud.

Principle Germania looked slightly off balance after Julchen's declaration. Monika glanced around awkwardly "Um I better go after her…." She trailed off and then sheepishly left.

"Wait for me, Monnie" The other freshman called and rushed after the blonde girl.

Alice strode out. Elizaveta then followed, knowing that the audience had been lost.

She sighed. Life would probably have been easier if she hadn't been on The List.

..

 **Fritz: Frederick the Great**

 **Roderich: Austria**

 **Bella: Belgium**

 **Yeketerina: Ukraine**

 **Mrs Fitzsimmons: random OC has nothing to do with story**

 **Principle Germania: nyo! Germania**

 **So sorry about massive gap but I suck, what can I say. So Julchen had a very short chapter. That's because she was expecting being on The List so it she wouldn't be upset the way others would and with regards to the hints about Julchen's history AAAAAAAAAAAALL shall be revealed.**

 **Hopefully a shorter gap next.**


	6. Chapter 5

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen watched her schwester walk off towards the school. She would be okay, Julchen was certain. There was nothing she'd done to warrant being on The List and she wasn't ugly. In Julchen's eyes she would always be baby West.

Fritz had tried to teach her German, as a sign of her heritage but four-year old Julchen couldn't quite pronounce 'schwester' and would say 'shwest' and the nickname stuck.

Monika looked so small against the grey hulking building. Julchen had never wanted her to go to Mount H.E.T.A but her parents had insisted against all her protests of how Monika's nerd school would be a far better place for her, or hell, even the competing (and loosing) School ATW would be better, but no, her protests weren't headed and now her parents thought her embarrassed of Monnie.

Julchen started, realising that she'd been just staring at the edge of the parking lot. Sighing she headed off towards the back entrance. Her locker was nearer there and she would run into less people.

People were watching her. Julchen used to like it. Hell she still sorta liked it, it made her feel important, powerful, except she knew why their eyes were on her and it wasn't because they found her awesome.

Legends of her epic blow out and later revenge spree had spread far and wide. Julchen had almost fainted when she'd heard Monnie had befriended a Vargas, even if Felicity wasn't around during it Lovina was and Antonio definitely was. It was a relief to hear that Lovina refused to associate with West. Julchen didn't really regret her actions, Bella's hair was still mud brown. The advertising on that hair dye sure hasn't been wrong. But on the other hand if Monnie, or gott forbid her parents, found out why she no longer hung out with, well anyone, there would be hell to pay.

The students in the hallway cleared a path to her locker, although no one left the corridor, everyone wanted to see Julchen's reaction. Whether it was angry or upset as all other ugly girls were, well they'd certainly remember this reaction.

She reached her locker. She barely glanced at the page stuck to her door, just enough to see the words JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT.

Showtime.

Her feet started drumming on the floor, creating a drumroll. And then she spun around, holding The List aloft and cheered as loudly as she could, which was very loud. She then ran down the corridor high- fiving everyone she could. Most people were too astounded to raise their hands, but that wasn't important. What was important was that Julchen wasn't beat, she never would.

…

Julchen wasn't entirely sure how she'd ended up on the servant stairs, so called because they were the narrowest and most dimly lit stairs. She had attempted to visit every part of the school, she wanted as many people as possible to see her reaction and spread the word. Still there wasn't really any point of being on the servant stairs.

She began heading down the stairs but she spotted Antonio and Lovina farther down the stairs. They were sitting side by side, Lovina looked upset and Antonio, livid. Julchen couldn't admit but be curious. Some words fluttered up the stairs 'The List', 'Felicity' and 'Sadik' were the ones Julchen could make out. She knew Antonio was close to Lovina and how they'd met, and it was that anniversary but why… but why

FELICITY VARGAS

Bonus points for overcoming family genetics

Oh Scheiße. Julchen didn't like Lovina, she never had but scheiße. That was harsh. Who else was attacked like Lovina? Was Kirkland?the Bondervicks? Yeketerina? Monnie? If they attacked Monnie, she'd.. she'd

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Otherwise know as Manika

.

.

.

Oh they were dead. They were so dead. But how could she destroy them all. The May plan was the ultimate plan to demean them, to be a true Prussian warrior and it didn't work. It destroyed her, although Elizaveta said it was the final nail in the coffin, so how could she make them regret ever daring to attack Monika Beilschmidt.

..

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Elizaveta had Chopin on her iPod. It had been on it for longer than she'd care to admit. When she was a sophomore, she'd been wandering around corridors during a free and heard some of the most beautiful piano music. She'd stood outside the music room listening to the person playing inside. Next week she went back to hear more. It became part of her routine. Every Thursday fifth period she would hover outside the music room to listen in on the piano. It wasn't until several months of this did she learn who she was listening to.

" _Alright, I know you're there. Why don't you come inside? You can hear the music better then."_

 _Elizaveta had noticed the door had been ajar, she must have been spotted through the crack. Should she come inside and risk ridicule or flee and pretend this had never happened._

" _I know you've been there for several weeks. The music is better without a door in the way,"_

 _Elizaveta shyly pushed open the door and walked in. Behind the piano she could make out a dark mop of hair and glasses but not much else. The pianist slowly came into view as she approached and it was Roderich Edelstein. The stuffy loser who had no friends and Julchen readily mocked. Oh god, she'd been spying on the music nerd, now he probably thought she was going to mock him or, even worse, had a crush on him._

 _He looked equally surprised. Ofcourse he was, she was Elizaveta Héderváry, tough girl, best friend to Julchen, regular mocker of Roderich Edelstien._

" _It's very good music."_

" _Thank you."_

" _How long have you been playing."_

" _Since I was four."_

" _Oh"_

 _It was the first time they'd spoken to each other alone and it was dreadfully awkward. It was a relief when Roderich went back to playing._

 _The music was just a wonderful as before._

Later he told her the piece he was playing when he first called her in was Chopin, she had been embarrassingly attached to it since. It was part of her morning routine, every day, on the school bus she'd listen to it while drinking her coffee. It was a time of peace in her hectic day. It also always reminded her of why she'd made all those decisions.

Elizaveta glanced around the bus as she sipped her coffee. Antonio was being yelled at by a sophomore. Antonio was something of an enigma. Elizaveta had been certain that he was gay. She had been so sure. And now he was dating a girl a year younger than himself, and it wasn't as if Elizaveta disliked Francine but…

Felka was yapping away loudly on her phone. She was so loud that Elizaveta could clearly hear her through her earphones. Elizaveta didn't try to hear all the gossip if the younger grades, but Felka was extremely vocal about her relationship. Elizaveta would give it two more months at most.

…

Elizaveta idly played with her pen, and wondered how someone could make World War 1 boring but apparently Mrs Fitzsimmons could. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Elizaveta covertly checked her surveillance, concluded it was minimal and checked her phone.

 **Bella: Omg have you seen The List!?**

 **You: Didn't feel like seeing people be humiliated.**

 **Bella: What! Not even Julchen?**

 **You: Ok you got a point but she's already been humiliated**

 **Bella: My hair is still brown**

 **You: Why don't you dye it?**

 **Bella: It would SERIOUSLY damage my hair**

 **Bella: Anyway your on the list!**

 **You: REALLY?!**

 **Bella: YES**

 **Bella sent image**

Elizaveta quickly opened the image. It was a picture of a page balanced on Bella's lap. The picture was a slightly blurred but she could still make out the text.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Clearly the best makeover in the history of H.E.T.A Highschool.

Elizaveta felt her glow of happiness undercut by the sarcastic remark. It was as though The Author was trying to bring up the past three years. Yeah three years were quite along but she had never done anything too bad and she had done some good. No one else could have reigned in Julchen as well as she had.

She was wrenched out of her thoughts by the loud ring of an announcement over the intercom.

" _THIS IS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL GIRLS ON 'THE LIST'."_ The class could practically hear the quotation marks. _"CAN FELICITY VARGAS, MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT, MADELINE WILLIAMS, FELKA_ _ŁUKASIEWICZ, FRANCINE BONNEFOY, ALICE KIRKLAND, GILLIAN BEILSCHMIDT AND ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY REPORT TO MY OFFICE AFTER SCHOOL TODAY. THANK YOU."_

The class's eyes were on Elizaveta. She rolled her eyes as the bell went and they began packing her books away. The rest of her classes passed in a blur. She had lunch with Bella and Yeketerina and the other girls. They all seemed to want to talk about The List. Her lack of interest was attributed to her 'wild' past. Yeketerina also wasn't particularly interested but of course she was a kooky foreigner.

She walked casually to the principle Germania's office. Most of the other girls had already arrived. The office was small and quite cramped, without enough room for the usual divisions to occur. Felka was sitting on one of two chairs, it was pulled up close to the desk. The other chair was occupied by a blonde girl in a red beret. Francine Bonnefoy was hovering near Beret-girl. Alice Kirkland was leaning against the radiator. The Beilschmidts were off by a corner with another freshman, probably Felicity Vargas. Although perhaps it would be more accurate to say Julchen was in the corner, Monika was trying to verbally pull her sister out. It was actually quite sweet. Elizaveta leaned against the overstuffed bookshelf.

Principle Germania looked up at them all from her desk. "Good, you're all here."She eyed all of them. Principle Germania was not an old woman and was could be quite pretty but she had donned the mantle of middle age early. "Now you all know why you are here. Today something terrible has happened to all of you."

"All of us?" Interjected Felka in disbelief.

"Yes, some of us don't really have any issues to worry about" Monika muttered casting Felka a dirty look.

"Hey, you know I'm, like, not exactly enjoying being called ugly and false when clearly there are uglier people that _should_ have been picked."

"Are you implying that mon chére, Madeline, shouldn't be the prettiest because I believe so. She is sweet and real."Francine swiftly inserted herself into the argue because she always had to be involved.

"Well clearly you shouldn't have been chosen, Franny. Since you're clearly not sweet and are as fake as plastic." Alice joined in, never missing an opportunity to insult Francine.

Julchen sniggered.

"Enough." Principle Germania cried over the bickering. "I meant what I said when I said that something terrible has happened to each and everyone of you. And I will try to find out who did this."

"Oh well that's nice." Julchen said suddenly. She began casually walking towards the door "Can we go now?"

"Please sit down, Julchen"

"Why? What else can you say? You're going to try to stop The List. Good luck with that. You might as well cancel the Homecoming dance, same principle. So I don't feel like listening to this any longer."

The door closing seemed too loud.

Principle Germania looked slightly off balance after Julchen's declaration. Monika glanced around awkwardly "Um I better go after her…." She trailed off and then sheepishly left.

"Wait for me, Monnie" The other freshman called and rushed after the blonde girl.

Alice strode out. Elizaveta then followed, knowing that the audience had been lost.

She sighed. Life would probably have been easier if she hadn't been on The List.

..

 **Fritz: Frederick the Great**

 **Roderich: Austria**

 **Bella: Belgium**

 **Yeketerina: Ukraine**

 **Mrs Fitzsimmons: random OC has nothing to do with story**

 **Principle Germania: nyo! Germania**

 **So sorry about massive gap but I suck, what can I say. So Julchen had a very short chapter. That's because she was expecting being on The List so it she wouldn't be upset the way others would and with regards to the hints about Julchen's history AAAAAAAAAAAALL shall be revealed.**

 **Hopefully a shorter gap next.**


	7. Chapter 6

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Felka played with her hair. She was faintly disturbed by what was happening. Things seemed to be slowly falling apart. Many of her friends were spending more time with Madeline, they listened to her. It was as if she'd been replaced. And yet she seemed so sincere. Felka wondered if Madeline realised that she was only being liked because of The List. The List was the only reason people were being merely cordial with Felka. That was what she kept telling herself. What was more concerning was Toris.

Felka had more free classes than Toris. Toris did far too many classes, with only one free a day, for lunch. Which was one of the reasons she was now so uncomfortable. Toris' class was in the library working on a project. She had peeked in and had seen him at a computer, Natalia in a chair pulled up beside him. They had been talking quietly, Natalia's blonde hair forming a curtain around them. Felka had watched Toris gently tuck a strand of golden hair behind the girl's ear. It had made Felka's blood boil.

And to top it all off, she'd found a note in her locker. Felka unfolded the page.

 _ **To Felka,**_

 _ **I wish to inform you that since the Homecoming dance is coming up you will wish to ask your fake boyfriend, Toris. On behalf of the student body, I request that you don't come with Toris. To those of us with eyes it is obvious that you don't love him and you are making him and the rest of us miserable. So stop pretending, Fakela.**_

 _ **Sincerely,**_

 _ **Honest Students**_

The page already had fold marks from the times she had folded and unfolded the note. She knew rereading it wouldn't change the letter, change Hedvika, change Toris but she kept reading it because it couldn't be that bad, it was always worse.

But that wasn't important, whoever wrote just was jealous she had Toris. It was probably Natalia.

It was a little before midnight, Felka stood at the edge of her garden swimming pool. A silvery tarp stretched across the rectangle, pulled taught like the skin of a trampoline. Dead leaves, acorns and dirt was scattered across the silver cloth. Her Tata closed the pool weeks ago, at the end of August, despite Felka's pouting that there were plenty of hot days left. She hadn't wanted summer to end, it had been too much fun. There had been only four deckchairs, so one for her, one for Toris, and two for whoever she wanted. She'd enjoyed the power of being able to choose two of her friends, hosting a daily game of musical chairs. Everyone had fun. Sometimes it was just her and Toris.

Toris had been a little reluctant to go swimming at the beginning of Summer but after a bit of convincing he took to the water. He wasn't a very good swimmer but Jett and Felka had helped him. Jett was on the swim team and Felka would sometimes invite him over. Felka wasn't amazing at swimming but she was determined to teach Toris. By the end of Summer he was jumping into the pool happily. He had looked at her so happily. He looked like he loved her. What had changed? Nothing had changed. Toris still loved her. Everything was the same.

She pulled out the letter again.

Last year, Felka had wondered if maybe she'd be chosen to make The List before she graduated. She'd imagined getting an anonymous letter and the stamp, or maybe an invitation to a midnight initiation ceremony. She'd always thought she'd be good at making The List. She could be totally objective in evaluating other girls. Hell she might even put Natalia on it, if she hadn't already been on it in freshman year.

Felka gingerly dipped her toe into the pool and the chill spread through her. She took a small step back.

A lump filled her throat.

Felka took a deep breath and leaped towards the water. She jumped too far and she crashed into the cover, pulling it down with her. She popped back up to the surface with a squawk.

The patio door slid open and her Tata darted out. "Felka!" He rushed over. Felka pulled herself up and sat on the edge. "Can you, like, get me a towel?"

Feliks Łukasiewicz stared at his adopted daughter. He raised his hands, then lowered them, his bracelets jangled.

"You've ruined the pool cover! I'm going to have to, like, get Dad to come and fix this. He'll probably have to, like, drain the water with everything you've spilled in. What were you thinking, Felka?"

Felka looked at her Tata. She wanted to tell her about The List, about Toris, about everything. Her Tata would probably march up to Principle Germania with her Dad and raise hell. So instead she simply said "Can you, like, get me a towel?"

Her Tata led her, dripping, into the house. She caught a glance of her reflection in a mirror. Her blonde hair was stuck to her face, her mascara was running, making her eyes look like a panda's.

She looked ugly.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

Madeline is amazed. Everything has changed. When Madeline went to homeroom, she took a seat and then one by one the girls came over to chat, not necessarily to chat to her but just to hover nearby. They pulled their chairs closer to her table.. The girls kept giving her advice, her hair should be in a ponytail or down, she should be wearing make up, her eyebrows needed to be filled in. It was rather overwhelming.

Hedvika at one point turned to Amelia and said "Why haven't you taught her these things, Amelia?" To which she merely shrugged.

"Yeah, you should really drop the bunches."

"The bunches?"

"Your hair." The girl gave Madeline a pitying look.

Madeline fingered her pigtails. Alice had shown her how to tie her hair like that.

 _Madeline stumbled outside. It had been a month at Mount H.E.T.A Highschool and she hated it. Amelia, of course, was thriving in this environment. No one noticed her. People constantly confused her for Amelia and then were disappointed she wasn't. She wished that the middle school they'd gone to, had a high school. She cried silently. Her glasses fogged up. Her hair fell covering her face, dislodging her glasses which clattered when they hit the ground. She didn't reach for them._

" _You shouldn't leave your glasses on the ground. They'll get scratched."_

 _Madeline looked up to see a blonde girl with bright red glasses obscuring her eyes, handing her, her own glasses._

" _Th-Thank you…" Madeline sniffled._

" _If you put your hair in pigtails, your glasses won't be easily pushed off."_

" _Thank you."_

" _If you need a place to cry, go to the bench under the oak tree, the one with all the ferns. No one goes over there." She said in a rather monotone voice. Madeline got her first good look at the other girl. Her eyes were puffy and red, tear streaks lined her face. She then left._

 _A few days later Madeline saw the girl again. She vaguely asked Amelia who she was. Amelia was surprised._

" _Her! I've heard she's called Alice Kirkland. I haven't really talked to her but she goes out drinking and does graffiti with all the people she hangs around with. From what I've heard she's super tough and mean. We should avoid her."_

 _She saw Alice several more times, always with a condescending sneer on her face, but sometimes, when Madeline was feeling depressed she'd go to the bench under the oak tree. Sometimes Alice was there and they'd talk or they'd sit in silence, other times Luka or Vladimir were there as well, and sometimes the bench would be empty._

 _Madeline was never one of trio but the bench remained a safe space and she wore her hair in pigtails, it was simply more practical._

"Um, I like the .. bunches."

The girl raised her perfectly shaped eyebrow. "Well, suit yourself."

She spotted Amelia enter, she came over to the group and awkwardly stood at the side of the conversation.

When homeroom ended, Madeline spotted Amelia go into the bathroom.

"Amelia, wait!" She called out.

Amelia darted into a stall.

"Listen, I'm sorry people aren't really talking to you as much, but I-"

"No you're not sorry." It was a statement.

"Amelia."

There is silence in the bathroom for a solid minute, Madeline almost turned to leave when

"You know that the only reason people are suddenly talking to you is because of The List."

"I know that. But now I'm not invisible."

"I miss that."

Madeline hurried out. She didn't want to admit it but that hurt. But she also wasn't surprised.

..

 **Feliks: Poland**

 **Sorry this update is so short, I kind of rushed it out. If Amelia seems out of character it's will be explained but I also feel that America isn't someone who would deal well with having the spot light moved off her. If anyone can guess why Alice was crying, major kudos to you. (the ferns are a clue). And does anyone have any ideas as to who wrote that letter to Felka?**

 **So now it's mid-term so, hopefully, I'll be able to upload more, since I'll be sitting in a chair doing nothing by choice not because I'm stuck in Irish class. Although I don't make any promises. Never underestimate humans ability to procrastinate.**


	8. Chapter 7

**JUNIORS**

ALICE KIRKLAND

It wasn't that Alice disliked girls, she disliked people in general, but the heard mentality got on her nerves. Girls would cluster together in groups to ward off predators. Alice was chief among those predators, earning the name 'Witch' from people she had decided were clinically brain dead, due to her snappishness and Francine, God damn her, telling people about her love of magic. Other predators included Luka and Vladimir, Zombie and Vampire respectively, and Julchen of course. Alice did think that Julchen was an idiot but at least she was a disillusioned idiot, even if her stunt at the end of last year was bloody stupid. The last major predator was Anya. She was unnerving. Far too observant.

Alice always got a good look at the herd mentality from her bench. She could see all the little freshmen mill around nearby, hugging and chatting. She'd never understood how girls would declare each other besties and then stab the other in the back. It was so pointless.

It was all so pointless.

"Hey Witch!"

Alice turned to see Vladimir running forwards her, dragging Luka and Emily behind her. "I'm giving you guys a lift."

She looked at Vladimir in surprise. Vladimir's family wasn't exactly rich, in fact they were pretty poor, his father was unemployed and as for his mother. . . Well that was a touchy subject.

"Is this another car you 'borrowed'?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"I asked the same." Muttered Luka.

Vladimir pretended to look insulted "Such doubt. I can't believe you think I didn't come across this car legally."

"We know you." Alice stated.

The car Vladimir theoretically owned was parked at the back gate of the school. It was run down, one window was missing and the whole car smelt of pis.

The ride consisted of Vladimir singing off key in Romanian to pop songs and Luka and Emily bickering. The normality of this all was comforting but something was nagging Alice at the back of her mind and it was irritating her. The List was such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things and it shouldn't hurt her.

But it did. It had reopened wounds that she'd thought long healed.

Vladimir parked outside a small elementary school, when the girls gave him questioning looks, he shrugged and said "I need to pick up Tatiana from her school."

Alice glanced out the gap where a window should be. She wasn't too far from her apartment. She turned to face the other teenagers.

"I'll walk from here." She said opening the door.

"Big brother."

Tatiana was running towards the beaten up car. Her patched coat was several sizes too large and flapped around her as she ran.

"Tatiana" Vladimir cried in delight getting out of the car. The two began to speak to each other in Romanian. Alice waved and began her walk home but not before she heard Luka say "You should call me big sister." "When I'm dead" Well that argument would last the rest of the day.

It was a warm day but Alice felt cold. She'd never quite acted like that but Peter had. He had once. Alice wished the apartment was further away. She didn't want to see her siblings.

Thankfully none of them were home. She went straight to her room and took out her books. She stared at them, silently willing her homework to do itself.

The door was unlocked and footsteps entered the kitchen. Several hours later the door was opened again.

"Great" Alice thought sarcastically to herself "The whole gang's here."

Another hour passed.

"Alright, dinner's here." Came the inevitable call. Bracing herself, Alice walked into the kitchen. Chinese takeaway was steaming on the table. Peter was sitting on a chair, staring hungrily at the food. Erin tossed a few plates on the table.

The three of them sat eating, Peter and Erin making conversation.

"Raivis has invited me to his house. Can I go?" Peter asked expectantly, looking at Erin. She played with her food then looked at him "Sure."

Peter continued talking. Peter seemed to really like Raivis and Paula and all his other friends. Alice was glad Peter never had any of them over. She would not be able to deal with small children. Besides it would be weird. The last time she'd seen any was Paula at the funeral.

"So, Alice, how are your friends, how's Francine?" Erin asked half-heartedly.

"I hate Francine. I've hated her for ages." Alice said and glared at her sister.

"Well excuse me for not paying attention to your social life the past year. It's not as if anything else was happening." Erin snapped back.

"Oh yes, you were too busy with college." Alice snarled, hackles raised.

"I'm here now and I'm doing more to support this family than you _ever_ did."Erin shouted.

"What family?" Alice yelled "Any affection we ever had died the moment you abandoned us."

"Are you _fucking kidding me._ Did you give up your dream to look after your shitty sister?" Erin yelled back, her normally low voice rising several octaves.

Alice didn't even bother to dignify that with a reply and simply stormed off to her room.

She hated her room. It was far too small, barely larger than a cupboard. She missed her old room. She missed her old house.

She missed her Mum.

..

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Francine sat on her bed, her laptop was open in front of her. She was scrolling through various dresses. Francine really wanted to find the perfect dress. She would ask her Papa for something once he came home. Francine vaguely where her Papa was. Paris maybe? Venice? Maybe he was still in the country just in a different city. Francine had stopped trying to keep up with where her Papa was when she was about nine. It was not worth the effort. She did miss her Papa at times, but his work was important.

Francine switched back to Facebook. Angelique had sent her several suggestions. There was also a message from Monica.

 **I'm sure you're excited for Homecoming but are you going to apologise to Julchen?**

Francine stared at the message in disbelief. Apologise. To Julchen. She swiftly sent a reply.

 **If anything she should apologise to me.**

Francine stared at her mirror. She loved that mirror. It was built into the wall, floor the ceiling. She now kept a sheet pinned up, covering it. Slowly, Francine walked over to it and tugged off the sheet. The whole mirror was covered with white spray paint and dark red nail varnish was splattered across it, spelling out a word.

Julchen definitely should be the one apologising. What Francine had done was just a reaction.

Monica hadn't responded. Sometimes Francine really didn't like Monica, she was almost as much of a stick in the mud as Alice.

Francine shook her head. "Enough." She said out loud. She wasn't sure why she kept thinking about her old, what would be the right word, acquaintances.

She went back to Facebook. Angelique was continuing on her quest to find the perfect outfit. Francine went to Antonio's profile. He wasn't online. Yesterday Antonio had been quite out of it. Francine supposed she should've expected that reaction, considering how miserable Lovina would be because of The List. Angelique sometimes raised concerns that Antonio had feelings for Lovina. Francine always laughed those concerns off. If there was one thing she was good at, was seeing people's feelings for others. It was how she'd known Anya and Chun-Yan would get together and that Toris and Felka would break up. Wasn't it this very talent that had put her on Julchen's hit list.

Wow, Francine was in a bad mood today. She mentally slapped herself, time to stop thinking about the past, time to move on to the future.

She switched back to Angelique, back to dresses. They were more important.

She glanced back at her mirror and the word written across it.

Thief

 **..**

 **Raivis: Latvia**

 **Paula: Wy**

 **Urgh Francine is so hard to write, like really hard. This is why she will probably have shorter chapters. Sorry but she's really hard.**

 **So there's more of their history coming up. Anyone want to guess about Francine and Alice.**

 **Ah yes and speaking of Alice we get to the blowup between her and Erin. I find in many fanfics England's siblings are portrayed as bullies and I personally disagree with this. They are all very different characters. Even historically, England gave back as good as it got in battles. Erin and Alice have good reasons for not getting along with each other which shall be addressed.**

 **And yes more nyo Moldova. I really love Romania and Moldova, they're the cutest siblings. They (and Luka and Emily) serve as mirrors to Alice and Erin's relationship. (And also Madeline and Amelia to some extent). Monica is also something of a mirror to Francine.**

 **So enough of an author's note.**


	9. Chapter 8

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen was supposed to be in school right now but she really didn't want to be. She'd been trying to be good for Monika but honestly she didn't feel like putting up with people's shit today. Monika was extremely upset about The List and when Julchen had tried to comfort her, well Monika was not in the mood to talk to Julchen and Julchen herself wasn't very good at reassurance, especially not while she was pissed off. And yes, she was still pissed, in fact that was why she was here in Kerry Park.

Kerry Park was about half an hour away from the school by car but just five minutes by walking. That is if you were willing to go through alleys, hop two walls and go through the gap in the park fence. It had taken awhile for Julchen to perfect the route but now she'd be able to spend the entire day here and come back to school without Monika ever realising she hadn't gone to a single class.

Wading through the tall grass and nettles, reminded Julchen painfully of all the other times she had come here with her friends. Former friends. They were all unawesome. Well except for, maybe, Antonio.

The park itself was pretty big with plenty of trees and, most importantly, the Bunker. It was a dumb name but she'd named it when she was young.

 _Julchen was at Lizzie's house when her_ _decided to kick them outside and into the park nearby, Kerry Park. It was a sunny day and the two of them retreated to the shady forest. It was wild with bushes exploding onto the path and grass that came up to their waists. The two of them raced along the path._

 _Lizzie stuck her tongue out, as she overtook Julchen. She gasped in surprise and narrowed her eyes. The stream was coming up, determined to beat Lizzie, Julchen leapt across the stream. She didn't quite make it and one foot landed in the water._

" _Scheiße!" Julchen didn't know what that meant but her Mutti and Vati said. She'd asked Old Fritz what it meant but he'd only laughed._

" _Jule, what are you doing in the stream?" Lizzie called from the small bridge further upstream. "Couldn't handle my victory." She crowed._

" _You can't handle my awesomeness!" Julchen declared, shaking her foot in an attempt to dry her shoe._

" _How are you going to get out?" Lizzie called._

 _Julchen looked at the mess of brambles and bushes behind her. She started to get through it but achieved nothing except several scratches._

" _Jule, are you stuck?" Lizzie called, concern rising._

" _My awesomeness will never allow me to be stuck." Julchen laughed._

 _There was a gap further down the stream. She scrambled along the bank to reach hole in the bushes. It was quite big and Julchen easily fit through. So now she had to get through the maze plants back to Lizzie. She tried, using the stream as a guide but she knew that she wasn't near the path. She started to grow a bit scared and then she stumbled into a clearing._

 _There was a low concrete, one-room building. The wall facing Julchen, had a large archway like a doorway. Curiously, Julchen walked inside. There was broken glass and the whole thing smelt awful. Graffiti decorated the walls of the building. She walked back out of the building and circled it. A tree was growing right beside it, an easily climbable tree. She started to climb._

" _Jule! Jule, where are you?" Elizaveta called. Julchen could see her from a top her perch._

" _Hey Lizzie, look at my awesomeness."_

 _Lizzie stared up at Julchen in amazement, Julchen, intern, was grinning like an idiot. Lizzie climbed up the tree as quickly as she could, dropping off the branch above the roof and landing beside Julchen._

" _Jule, what is this place?"_

" _This is 'Julchen's Awesome Bunker' and I declare this my_ awesome _bunker and you Lizzie are worthy to be in its prescience." Julchen declared graciously._

 _Lizzie punched her arm and said "What if it's my bunker and you're allowed here."_

" _Yeah but_ I _found it."_

" _By being an idiot."_

" _By being awesome!"_

" _What if it's both our place?" Lizzie asked, turning to look Julchen in the face. Julchen considered what her best friend proposed._

" _Nah, this is Julchen's Awesome Bunker." She laughed, Lizzie laughed and punched her arm again._

Julchen blinked. There was the Bunker. With well-rehearsed movements, Julchen climbed up the tree and dropped onto the roof. A deckchair and a box, covered by a waterproof cloth, sat on the roof. Julchen sat down on the chair, kicked the waterproof of the box and removed her journal. Her diaries were in there, along with Fritz's sheet music, a cheap camera and a yellow, toy chick. This box was _Julchen_. It contained so many important things to her. If anyone were to take it, she'd be livid. She used to keep the box under her bed, until she found out her parents were reading her diaries to figure out how she was feeling. Well now it was here now, safe.

This journal was important, it was her battle plan journal. It was where she'd planned the May plan and all the other pranks she'd done before that. Julchen flicked to next page.

So how to ruin the Homecoming dance?

..

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Elizaveta had mixed feelings towards Phys Ed. She liked sports and she _loved_ running. There was a sense of freedom that running gave, the speed, the air rushing against her face, ponytail bouncing. It was something she could get into and do well.

On the other hand, there were definitely some negatives. Last year, and the years before that, she didn't have to worry about boys and the way they'd stare at her ass in shorts or goggle at her boobs as she ran. She didn't have to worry about these things before when her hair was frizzy, her face a mess of acne and a figure that could be called passable, boys would stare Yeketerina's _assets_ or Bella's figure. But now puberty was finished with her, she wore make up, she wasn't considered one of the guys anymore and being on The List exasperated this fact.

As she rounded another lap, some of the guys that had already dropped out wolf whistled. It was humiliating. She heard them whistle again and knew Yeketerina was passing them. Elizaveta ran a few more laps before going to sit down beside Bella who had only ran five laps so as not to be sweaty. Bella was very conscious of her appearance. Isn't everyone?

"Liza, are you okay?" Bella asked, concerned.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be be?" Elizaveta wheezed.

"You looked upset." Bella said softly "You can talk to me, you know."

Elizaveta looked straight at Bella. "Do you want to out for lunch?"

…

"Well?"

The two of them were sitting in a café booth, Bella had a salad and Elizaveta had an empty plate that had contained a sandwich and a cup of coffee. A cup of coffee that Elizaveta seemed to be suddenly fascinated by, avoiding Bella's gaze.

"Come on, Liza. You can tell me." Bella urged.

Elizaveta looked up at her friend.

"Bella." She said slowly "Did you write The List?"

"What." Bella said, taken aback. "Liza, you know there are always rumours about the author, why would you believe them?"

"Because it makes sense. You hate Julchen and want her humiliated and you've always said Felka is fake and since you want to hurt Julchen then you'd drag Monika into this mess. But let me say, you _shouldn't_ have involved Monika. She's a sweet kid and-."

"But I _didn't_ Liza. I didn't write The List! I don't have any reason to. Believe me I didn't." Bella implored.

"I don't think I do." Elizaveta whispered.

"Please, listen to me. I didn't make The List." Bella took Elizaveta's hand and stared at her.

"Please."

The two stared at each other.

The background noise of the café seemed to silence. The world was quiet.

"Okay. I believe you."

They fell into an uneasy silence. Elizaveta wanted to believe Bella. She wanted to trust Bella. Bella had been so kind to her when Elizaveta had been at her lowest. But Bella could also hold a grudge and Julchen swapping Bella's hair cream for long lasting hair dye was definitely enough to cause a grudge.

But then again Bella really didn't Francine. So perhaps she hadn't written The List.

Elizaveta just didn't know.

 _Julchen was running away. She was probably going to the Bunker or the mall. She clearly didn't want to talk to Elizaveta. It hurt. But Elizaveta was angry. Yes, she liked Roderich, maybe as more than a friend. So of course she was going to be angry at Julchen if she was going to go out of her way to be cruel to Roderich._

 _Elizaveta stood on the outside stairs and stared at where Julchen had disappeared. She felt such a mess of emotions that she wasn't sure how to react._

 _She felt a light tap on her shoulder. Elizaveta whirled around to see a blonde girl with a green ribbon tied in her hair. Bella Peeters._

" _Hey, uh, Elizaveta, would you, uh, like to have lunch with me and some of my friends?"_

 _Elizaveta stared at Bella. They_ never _talked, ever. In fact she and Julchen regularly mocked Bella but here she was being kind to her. It wasn't something Elizaveta had ever expected._

" _I, uh"_

 _Julchen wasn't here. Elizaveta had hardly any other friends._

" _Yeah, I'll come!"_

 _Bella led Elizaveta to a café nearby. There were several girls sitting at a table. Bella sat down at the table. The other girls eyed Elizaveta up and down the judgement was clear. Almost all the girls left, leaving only Yeketerina behind, who started to cry. Bella sat down, head held high. She determinably caused a conversation._

 _At first it was extremely awkward but after a while, a natural banter formed and Elizaveta was having fun. She liked Bella and Yeketerina. She was happier than she was with Julchen._

 _It was something to consider._

 **..**

 **So we're getting a lot more of Julchen and Elizaveta's past. If you want to guess what exactly happened, be my guest. Digital cookies for anyone who guesses correctly. I didn't intend to focus so much on their relationship in this chapter but what the hey.**

 **I might be updating faster in the next week, cause there's strikes going on so I'll have more free time, possibly. Heh I don't live in France oddly enough.**


	10. Chapter 9

**FRESHMEN**

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika wished her parents were competent. She wished they wouldn't assume she was fine just because she wasn't setting fire to things. She wished they'd actually talk to Julchen, although for that to work Julchen would have to actually talk to them. It wasn't fair that Monika had to deal with being called ugly and not being able to tell her parents something was wrong.

But how do you start that conversation? 'Oh by the way, there's an organised ranking system of girls' prettiness and I was labelled the ugliest. Oh and so was Julchen and she might be planning on blowing up the school during the dance.'

Honestly, Monika wouldn't be surprised if Julchen did blow up the school. Her behaviour was unreadable and irrational. Monika wished she could know what Julchen was thinking so she could convince her not to do it, a big spectacle would just make things worse. The worst part was Monika had no idea what her sister was thinking.

When they were younger it had been simpler. When they were younger Julchen was so straight forwards. But that had all changed.

But it had been nice, when they were kids. When Onkel Otto would read them fairytales, Grimm's fairytales, the Disney versions were too tame apparently. When Julchen learnt flute and Monika watched in awe. When Fritz took them out on 'Educational trips'. One that she always remembered was ice-skating.

 _It was a cold December day. Fritz had insisted in taking Monika and Julchen out ice-skating. He had told them that it was a German tradition to go ice-skating, Monika wasn't quite sure she believed that but Julchen always said that Fritz knew_ everything _._

 _The ice rink was packed full of people and they had to cue for ages for their skates. During that wait, Julchen had run off to pull a man's scarf and Fritz called her back and apologised to the huge man, who merely smiled at him. Fritz then turned seriously to Julchen and chided her and, shockingly, she bent her head in shame._

 _Fritz then bent down to Julchen and said seriously "Remember Julchen, a true Prussian warrior does not provoke a fight they can not win and they are always honourable. Are you a Prussian warrior?"_

 _Julchen's eyes lit up. "Ja, Ja, ich Prussian warrior." She said eagerly._

 _Fritz laughed gently "I think your German needs more work."_

 _.._

 _As soon as Monika put her skate on the ice, she lost her balance. Julchen clutched Fritz's hand as she stepped on, trusting him to not let her fall. Monika reached for the railing prevent herself from falling over. She watched the other skaters speed around the rink. Fritz skated beside Julchen, ready to extend her a hand if needed. Julchen had a look of concentration, her tongue stuck out as she focused on her feet. Monika cautiously pulled herself along the railing, copying the movements of a pair of blonde twins, only a little older than herself._

 _After a while of this, she decided she was ready to go on the ice._

 _And then immediately regretted it._

 _Desperate arm flailing was the only thing stopping her from falling over. Oh god she was falling over._

 _And then a hand grabbed hers, totally shifting her sense of balance and Monika fell, spectacularly._

 _At least the other person had fallen over too._

" _Wow Monnie! How'd you even manage that?" Julchen laughed untangling herself from Monika who was fiercely blushing._

" _Are you both alright?" Fritz asked, stopping neatly beside them._

" _Yes. I'm too awesome to fall."_

" _Then how come, you're lying on the ice?"_

" _Sh! West!" Julchen cried, embarrassed._

 _The two of them somehow managed to get back on their feet. Julchen took Monika's hand and the two of them slowly moved across the ice. They weren't good at ice-skating but they didn't fall over again._

 _They were called off the ice and Monika was grateful to stand on firm, non-slippery ground again. Julchen, however, was already pestering Fritz to take them back ice-skating, he said they might be able to come back._

 _They didn't. The rest of the Christmas season was too busy and next year the temporary ice rink was moved. Monika didn't know where but Julchen took it as a personal offence._

Monika carefully placed her books into her bag. There was a folded page lying on top of books. It must have been squeezed in through the gap. She unfolded it, stared at it, then crumpled it up and stuffed it in her pocket. She'd find a trashcan soon.

She came across the folder with all the math notes, meticulously explained methods and colour-coded formulas. The notes took a lot of time and effort but Monika liked teaching Felicity. There was something extremely satisfying seeing Felicity's moment of understanding and then having her do it on her own. Monika liked explaining, liked teaching. Would she even be helping Felicity anymore?

She took the folder with her. Just in case.

..

FELICITY VARGAS

Felicity was waiting anxiously for Monika, shifting her weight every few seconds. Last night had involved several phone calls to various people, ranging from big sister Francine to Lilli. Felicity had wanted to know how to talk to Monika and even if she was upset. Lilli had given Felicity a very Lilli answer of just be nice. Francine's answer was more cryptic but seemed to be a similar message.

Felicity kept mulling over her plan to talk to Monika when she walked in. She was clutching her bag to her chest like a drowning person clutches a life jacket. Felicity spent another second mentally preparing herself, before bouncing over.

"Ciao, Monnie!" She said brightly.

"Hello, Felicity." Monika responded. There was a pregnant pause during which Felicity tried not to be upset that Monika hadn't used her nickname.

"So, erm" Felicity's mind searched desperately for a way to bring up The List. That was the part of Francine's advice she'd understood, be tactful, don't just blurt it out. "Lilli and Emily and me will be going dress shopping tomorrow, wanna come?"

It had been a long fought battle to get both of them to go shopping, Emily didn't want to wear a skirt much less shop for a dance dress and Lilli's brother had taken a lot of convincing. Apparently he hadn't wanted her to be friends with either of them after The List, something about a negative light.

Monika looked at Felicity. "I'm not going to Homecoming so why would I need a dress?" She said flatly.

"What?" Felicity was stunned. "But it's our first high school dance. And there'll be lots of cute boys to flirt with."

"Well then, maybe I should pick out a suit."

"Huh?" Felicity was confused.

Monika reached into her pocket, pulled out a crumpled ball of paper and handed it to Felicity. Curiosity burning inside, she opened up the page to find a torn out page from a fashion magazine. It advertised Prom tuxedoes, a particularly broad shouldered one was circled in sharpie.

"Monnie?"

Monika wasn't looking at her.

"Monnie, you're not a man." Felicity had a habit of stating the obvious, especially when confused.

"I know that Felicity." She snapped, suddenly annoyed. "Everyone knows that. But that's not the point. To everyone I will always be Manika, I'll always be ugly."

Monika was trembling with emotion.

"And I _shouldn't_ care about it. It's not important. What's important is Julchen's potential destruction. But I can't do anything about that. I can't do anything about the fact I look like a man. I can't do anything about the fact you don't need me." She said all of this quickly and seemed to fall in on herself at the end. "I'm so confused. I should know what to do, right?" She said the last part almost as a whisper.

Felicity put her arms around Monika in a hug.

"I _do_ need you. You're my best friend."

They stood there in an awkward hug. Felicity prayed that she'd cheered up Monika, she wasn't entirely sure she had.

 **..**

 **I'm not sure why but this chapter was really hard to write. I also just realised this is the first time Felicity and Monika even interacted. And yeah if anyone's wondering Monika is not fully cheered up. Felicity only addressed part of her issues.**

 **So I'm back in school because the unions decided to stop striking, bout time too. Actually went back on the ninth so conversations were basically oh god we're in school and Trump got elected. Heh probably shouldn't mention politics.**

 **Edit: Okay so I've gotten a few messages about pairings, now i suppose the expected thing to do would be to neatly list out the romantic relationships that appear in this story. But I'm not going to do this. Simply listing out pairs is just a minefield of spoilers and it also ruins any** **potential ambiguity of the relationships. Let's say I listed PruHun as a pair for this story now you'll see all of their history as a couple rather than as friends, sometimes a person's feelings for another are complicated and its up to the reader to decide whether it's platonic or romantic. And with regards to spoilers, let's say i write a story about England and France in a relationship but then England ends up with America, if i label my story FrUk with eventual UsUk the whole story has been given away.**

 **For some stories this works, one-shots, linear stories, romances, ect, but there isn't meant to be clarity in this story since everything is told from the characters point of view and is unreliable, like is there Spamano in this fic? Felicity thinks their relationship is familial but perhaps it is romantic, you get to decide, so spelling it out ruins the ambiguity.**

 **Sorry i went on a big rant but this was something I wanted to address and give my full thoughts on.**


	11. Chapter 10

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Felka was a little concerned. Not very concerned but a little concerned. She hadn't seen Toris this morning, he was probably at his checkers? Chess? club. Toris had a different time for lunch and during that one free they shared, he had been extremely awkward and kept staring at his feet. They'd still had a good time, Felka was designing their Homecoming outfits as they should be matching. But still it was disconcerting, so she needed advice and there was only one person in Mount H.E.T.A. to get it from.

The comfy chairs did live up to their name. Felka couldn't help but feel put out that the juniors had taken the chairs when they were meant for sophomores. It was after school and plenty of the juniors were giving Felka annoyed looks. It was because she was on The List. They wouldn't have beforehand.

After what seemed like ages of waiting, Francine sashayed in with some dark haired girl in red. She arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow in 'polite' confusion.

"Francine, I, like, need to talk to you. Actually your name is, like, kinda long. Can I call you something else? Fran? Cine? Ciney? Franny? Yes Franny it is." Felka declared, getting even more weird looks in the process.

The brunette turned to Francine and said something in French and Francine responded. Felka thought that French was a dumb language because who would want to speak it when you could speak Polish?

The rapid fire French stopped and Francine turned to Felka. "Why do you want to speak to moi?"

"Well, like, people say you, like, are the person to come to if, like, they needed help with romance. Or, like, relationships and stuff."

Francine gave the brunette a smug 'I-told-you-so' look then sat on the other comfy chair elegantly. Somehow. The brunette began walking out but called "I'll wait for you at your car, chérie." Francine and Felka awkwardly stared at each other. Felka played with her hair.

"Well, _chére_ " Francine said, there was something mocking in the way she said 'chére'. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Felka shuffled her feet. "I, like, think Toris is embarrassed of me, because I was, like, on The List."

Francine's face remained impassive. "And why do you think it's because of The List?"

"Because, like, since it came out, Toris has been spending time with Natalia and this morning I, like, didn't see him at all."

Francine leaned back in thought then said "Well he isn't embarrassed of you because of The List."

"That's great. I, like, knew there was nothing wrong."

"He isn't embarrassed of you." Francine repeated "And he isn't acting unusually because of The List."

"But he _is_ acting different" Felka pressed.

"No he's not acting 'different', you are." Francine said slowly, as if talking to someone who was dumb.

"What! What are you, like, talking about?" Felka was totally lost. She was acting normally, well maybe not exactly normal, she was being more attentive. Surely that was a good thing.

"You're finally noticing him but now it's too late."

Felka stared at Francine who continued to elaborate. "He's always spent time with Natalia and honestly I'm surprised you even noticed that you barely ever see each other in the mornings."

Felka stared at Francine, she almost seemed to be enjoying herself.

"I.. I.. like . ."

Francine picked up her bag and rummaged through it. She pulled out a ring folder and opened it with a flurry of pages. The folder had pages upon pages in it and several burst from the small folder when she opened it. Francine quickly picked them up. Felka could see The List and as Francine flicked through it she spotted several pictures including the witch, Madeline and Elizaveta. Francine stopped and extracted a page, on it was a picture of Felka and a wall of text with various headings. Felka saw the headings Flaws, Consequences and Relationships before Francine settled the page on her lap, out of Felka's view.

"So you and Toris were neighbours,correct?"

"Yes."

"But you went to different middle schools?"

".. Yes."

"Natalia went to the same middle school as Toris."

"Yes, but, like, what does this have to do with anything?"

"Natalia and Toris became very close during that time."

"Well they weren't _that_ close." Felka argued.

"In fact" Francine said, plowing on despite Felka's protests "they were dating and never officially broke up"

The bottom seemed to fall out of Felka's world.

"What did you just say?" Felka whispered.

Francine gave her a slightly pitying look. "They never broke up. You just waltzed in and declared yourself Toris' girlfriend and Toris didn't want to say anything because he's too nice."

Felka was trembling. She didn't know from what emotion. She was so confused. Toris liked Natalia. They had dated. He still liked her. Had he ever liked Felka? He had, right? Francine was just wrong.

Felka didn't even notice Francine leaving.

She definitely didn't notice the single page that Francine had missed underneath the other chair.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

One thing Madeline liked about both Alice and Francine was that they didn't consider her family _particularly_ unusual. The fact that Madeline cooked almost all her meals, did her laundry, walked everywhere and basically looked after herself, neither of them found it odd. She knew Francine's Dad was never home, so she'd taught herself how to cook and Alice had a stubborn independent streak that meant she wouldn't allow herself to be taken care of.

The fact that they both viewed the way she lived as 'normal' was comforting. When she was younger she'd had a friend Karina Maes, who'd found her home life totally bizarre. They didn't really see each other much, now that she'd moved to the Netherlands but Marina always sent her tulips for her birthday. She was sweet in that way.

If Madeline was being honest with herself, she preferred the times when her parents were out or even when they were screaming at each other. _Anything_ was better than when they tried to act like an actual family.

They were all sitting around the table. Her mother had set it neatly, as though they were about to have Thanksgiving dinner while in reality it was just Chinese Take away. Despite the tension between them, Amelia and Madeline sat together. That was always how it worked, the two of them, united because of their parents.

"So," their mother began "how was school?"

"Fine." The twins said in unison. It was the same routine every time they tried to stop fighting and be a family. 'How was your day?' 'Fine, how was yours?' 'Also fine'. One syllable answers while someone desperately tried to keep a civil conversation going

"So your father and I have been talking"their mother started. The words 'your father and I have been talking' were never followed by anything good. "and we were planning on maybe spending more time together, as a family."

This statement was met by a dead silence, even their father didn't look enthused. Amelia stood and took Madeline and her own plate over to the dishwasher. Madeline followed suit, clearing away their glasses.

Their mother continued valiantly "So this weekend we were going to spend in Uncle John's cabin. It would be like an adventure."

Madeline remembered that cabin. It had been their mother's idea last time too. There were ants and one of the beds was broken and Amelia and Madeline had to share. They had intended to stay there for a week but on the second evening there was a huge argument between their parents that culminated in them leaving the cabin the next morning.

Amelia spun around and stared at her mother as though she'd grown another head. "Homecoming is this weekend. We _can't_ go."

"I know it's this weekend, Amie and I think it's a good idea for you to miss it because—."

"So you _want_ me to miss Homecoming?"

Their mother shuffled in her chair. "I think it's a good idea. You've become very fixed on your appearance and if you just spend a weekend away from it all.." she trailed off.

"I should be allowed to wear whatever I want!"

"Amelia is right. She should be able to dress up if she wants to." Their father inserted himself into the conversation. He wasn't necessarily on Amelia's side, just on the side that wasn't their mother's.

"I don't want her dressing like the sluts you visit."

"I don't dress like a _slut_!" Amelia cried enraged.

At the same time their father retorted "You keep bringing that up! It happened once which is more than I can say about you."

Their mother closed her eyes and said slowly "And what do you mean by that?"

"Oh come on, that 'tennis buddy' is clearly a fuck buddy."

Madeline silently left the kitchen. Her parents didn't notice. They never did.

Amelia followed suit and they sat on the stairs, listening to the insults grow in volume and venom. It was routine from when they were children, listening to their parents scream.

To break the silence Madeline said "You really want to go to Homecoming, eh?"

Silence.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"It'll be fun." Amelia said flatly.

"But you don't get like this about other things."

Amelia glared at her knees. "That's none of your business."

Pause

"Actually it is. Because you're getting angry at me and, funnily enough, I haven't done _anything."_

"Oh sure you haven't, it's not like when I'm the centre of attention I'm a slut but when you are, 'you're just coming out of your shell'." Amelia snapped, finally looking at her twin.

Madeline stared at her, incredulous. "So that's what this is about! You're _jealous_ that people are noticing me instead of you."

"Shut up, Madeline, just shut up."

"Well now you know what it's like being me, not being noticed!"

"But I'm _not_ you. I'm Amelia, not you!"

They were both standing now. Their parents' argument continued downstairs. Madeline couldn't remember ever feeling this angry before, the blood was pounding in her ears.

"Well we'll see who gets invited to Jett's party" Madeline snapped"and you know what?"

"What?" Amelia hissed.

"Maybe you can come as my tag along, because I'm the _nice twin_!"

Amelia's face turned an unusual shade of red as she yelled "I wish I didn't have a twin!"

"Well you certainly act like you don't!"

Amelia stormed up the stairs turned and yelled "Fuck you, Madeline Williams!" Before slamming the door to their bedroom. The sound of the lock turning seemed to echo through the house.

That night Madeline slept on the couch. Her parents didn't notice.

 **..**

 **Karina Maes: nyo! Netherlands**

 **So that just happened. If it seems like I'm being too harsh oops also apologies if the conversations escalate too fast, I'm not really that good at writing dialogue.**

 **But, yeah, now you get to see the totally dysfunctional family of Madeline, so that's fun. As for Toris and Felka, yep. All that Francine said was true. It's why Toris and Natalia are seen together all the time. I'm personally a big fan of both BelaLiet and LietPol so I'm not saying either ship is inherently better, but we shall see who Toris ends up with the next time I focus on the Sophomores.**

 **When it comes to my next update, honestly I'm not sure when it'll come out. It might be as soon as Wednesday or it might not be until the weekend, I'm not honestly sure because I'll be working next week so we'll just see what happens.**


	12. Chapter 11

**JUNIORS**

ALICE KIRKLAND

English Literature was a subject that was more tolerable than most for Alice. The teacher was competent and the material was vaguely interesting. It was leagues ahead of French at any rate. But the one issue Alice had with Lit was Ms. Victoria. She was a rather old woman who seemed rather grandmotherly but she had a stern streak in her and would allow no slacking. For some reason she was convinced that Alice was destined to become a great author if she tried more. Alice didn't believe that shit, good things like that didn't happen to people like her. But now she was stuck with Ms. Victoria after class.

"Well?" She asked, bored.

"Your last short story was excellent." Ms. Victoria began "Your language was refined and the message was subtle but clear. But I feel the need to ask about the imagery."

Alice held her gaze.

"Alice, you have a great talent. But it seems that in your writing you have a lack of creativity."

Alice's didn't move a muscle. "What do you mean?" She said flatly.

Ms. Victoria sighed "In all your stories you use weather as metaphor for meaninglessness. I don't think I've ever read something you've written that doesn't contain weather as imagery."

"It's poignant." Alice muttered.

"Listen to me, Alice." Ms. Victoria implored.

"I am listening" Alice protested.

"No." The teacher said firmly "Actually listen to someone Alice. You have a great talent and you could go far with it but you do need to work, you need to push yourself, be more creative. You used to try new things in everything you wrote and you dreamed of being an author."

"I was naïve. Things like that don't happen to me. Why bother doing more than the bare minimum? I am already passing your class, isn't that what you want?"

The echoes of Alice's yells faded into the background and Ms. Victoria slowly stood.

"Alice, you are my student. I want you to succeed and I want you to be happy. It is not naïvety to have ambitions."

"But those ambitions should be realistic." Alice protested the optimistic view.

"I _am_ being realistic." Ms. Victoria said seriously.

The two didn't speak, both lost in their thoughts.

"I have entered your story into a young adult writing competition. It's qualified for the state level. If it's chosen you will write a story for a national competition."

Alice stared at the old woman. Her story was in a state wide competition. It was being considered one of the best in the state. Yeah she'd always known she could write but doing it professionally seemed foolish, life wasn't easy.

"It won't get through. It won't go any further than it has." Alice said, recovering her indifferent attitude.

Ms. Victoria chuckled slightly "Alice you are the most pessimistic person I've ever taught, do you know that?"

"I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist in a world of optimistic idiots."

The bell rang.

"I fear I've kept you too long. Who do you have now?" Ms. Victoria began hastily writing a note.

"Mr Hussein for calculus."

She quickly finished the note and handed it to Alice. "You'll get a letter on Saturday about the competition. Now you'd better hurry, I don't want you to be even more late for Mr Hussein"

Alice left and was just at the door when her teacher said "If you are a realist then you should be excited for the letter."

Alice didn't reply.

Her mind was whirling from that conversation. She wasn't entirely sure what the correct emotion to be feeling right now. Should it be joy? Excitement? Pride? Maybe shame at her lack of effort? It probably shouldn't be sadness.

Her Mum head always liked her stories.

She was always encouraging Alice, giving her good critique and ideas. Her Mum helped her. Is it any wonder her writing was no longer getting better? Of course Alice didn't want to try, not when it reminded her painfully of her Mum.

 _Alice had always been familiar with disconnect. Francine's pretty face was a disconnect from her ugly personality, for example. But today she experiencing a new disconnect. It was sunny. The sky seemed to go on forever and no matter what anyone did the sun would be in their eyes. It shouldn't be sunny at a funeral, it felt wrong. Shouldn't it be raining, the sky the colour of lint curtains of rain hammering against the mourners all in black with black umbrellas. It would be respectful of the universe for that to be the case. Her Mum had liked the rain, she said it reminded her of her home. She always talked about going home, now she was being buried an ocean away from her true home. It didn't seem fair._

 _The priest was giving the generic 'fill in name here' funeral service. Phrases like 'a kind mother', 'a strong spirit' and 'a loyal wife' drifted into Alice's spinning mind and she had to fight the urge to laugh, the words 'I do' never passed her Mum's lips before a priest. Peter wondered who his father was, Alice and Erin didn't care._

 _At the thought of Erin, Alice's blood boiled. The front bench in a funeral was meant for family. It was practically empty. Erin should be here, at the funeral, she shouldn't have just abandoned Alice and Peter to whatever fate chance would have of them._

 _Being angry was easier than being sad._

 _After the funeral Winston De Valera escorted them towards his car. Winston, apart from having the most pretentious name ever, was their social worker ever since their Mum had to stay permanently in hospital. He ferried them around to different foster homes and told them about what might happen to them in the future._

 _The drive was quiet, at least that wasn't a disconnect._

…

 _Alice didn't know what Erin and Winston had managed to work out but she had custody of them. That seemed like a bad idea to Alice. Erin was a college student, they'd have to sell the house and get a cheaper home. Home, ha! That's a laugh. There can't be a home without a family._

..

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Her Papa was coming home today. He'd sent her a text in the morning. She was excited to see her Papa, it had been … well she wasn't sure exactly how long it had been, at least a few months.

She'd cooked French onion soup. Her Papa liked something warm for when he came home. Francine liked cooking. Preparing the food was like building something, fixed steps to follow and it was rather relaxing. When the food was cooking, the smells were heavenly and she got a rush of satisfaction when she took the dish out of the oven and saw it come out perfect. And then when someone else ate the food and liked it, well there was no better feeling. Francine liked giving other people her cooking, she didn't particularly like it.

She mulled these thoughts over idly as she stared at her phone. Antonio _still_ hadn't answered. She scrolled through her conversation.

 **Toni: Lovinas upset**

 **You: Oh?**

 **Antonio: u should say ur sorry**

 **You: For what?**

That had been two hours ago, he still had not replied. Antonio didn't have any reason to be upset with her, at least not that he knew of. Antonio didn't know about, well anything. He was so oblivious, he hadn't noticed two girls fighting over him. Francine wondered if Antonio ever realised why he was spared in Julchen's campaign.

Despite this, she was excited. She was going to see her Papa after so long and she had great news for him. The motto of her Papa's fashion company was ' _Beauty and Joy'_ and it was a motto she believed in. With beauty came joy and with joy came beauty. And so she was certain he would be proud of her because of The List.

Francine heard a key turn in the lock and the front door opened. There was a whoosh of the wind and the sound of a heavy suitcase being dragged across the doorway. She flew down the stairs to see her Papa closing the front door.

"Papa!"

He turned to see her, weary blue eyes sparkling with joy at the sight of his petit ange.

"Francine!" He cried happily. Once Francine would have collided into her Papa in a hug, now she hugged him respectfully.

"Oh how I have missed you, small angel." He said in French, holding her to his chest. Francine buried her face into his hair, he smelt of perfume and expensive shampoo.

...

Her Papa greatly enjoyed the soup, complimenting her cooking. Francine allowed herself a moment of pride in her hobby before showing the thing she was truly proud of.

"Oh, what is this?" Her Papa asked surprised as Francine handed him The List.

"You know, Papa The List. I told you about this when I was a freshman." Francine reminded the Frenchman.

"Ah, yes." Her Papa said, remembering what had happened "You were sad that you weren't named prettiest."

Francine flushed. She remembered how she'd been behaved that day, she'd been desperately jealous of Monica but they'd moved past it so it was all alright.

"Well, yes. But look at the juniors." She beamed, pointing out her name.

Her Papa stared at The List and read through it carefully.

"Hm, how's Alice these days?"

Francine stared at her father. She'd worked hard and was proud of The List and her Papa was asking about _Alice_?

"Why do you ask?"

Her Papa looked up at her "Alice is a sad girl who needs help." He looked back down at The List. "So does Julchen."

"Julchen!" Francine almost shrieked but didn't she was far too refined to something like shrieking. "Papa, you do know what Julchen did? To me? To Angelique? To Toni?"

"I'm not saying what she did was right but you shouldn't respond with equal revenge. Be kind to them. And this" He said levelly holding up The List. Francine shuffled her feet, uncomfortably. "isn't something you should be proud of, you shouldn't be ashamed either but you shouldn't care about something as silly as this." Her Papa looked at Francine.

"You don't need a List to make you feel beautiful, you already are. But something like this could do real damage. So I want you to show everyone the brave, kind girl

 _I_ know you are, rise above this and be nice to the girls attached by this."

Francine nodded mutely and left to her room.

Toni still hadn't replied. Francine picked up her folder and opened it. She'd put so much work into it and now her Papa had said it was worthless, no not worthless, damaging. She flicked through the profiles and rough charts.

It was damaging.

She pulled out Julchen's profile. It was the first one she'd made.

 _ **Relationships**_

 _ **Crush on Toni, possible crush on Elizaveta.**_

Francine stared at the words she written. Crush on Toni, ha wasn't that true. Truly Toni was oblivious.

 _Francine stared across at Julchen, who was glaring at her._

" _Why are you flirting with Toni?" Julchen spat._

" _Isn't that what you do when you like someone?" Francine said sweetly._

 _Julchen narrowed her eyes. "Look, I don't think you and Toni would work."_

" _And you think you and him would?"_

 _Julchen's eyes widen and her jaw dropped. "How did you- I mean the- Toni is nice and kinda awesome but I mean- I am awesome." She babbled, flushing a bright red._

" _Listen Jul, just because we both like our ami, it doesn't mean we can't still be friends."_

" _That is very true and slightly awesome for you to say so."_

 _Francine glanced towards the boys bathroom, where Toni had vanished to. "I think we should let Toni choose which of us he likes more. We wait for him to ask one of us out."_

" _Agreed"_

 _They shook hands._

" _Of course Toni's going to choose me, cause I'm awesome."_

" _Oh please, who doesn't like a pretty French girl, non? The power of l'amour shall prevail."_

 _They glared at each other._

" _Hola, amigos! I'm back Toni." Toni called as he plopped himself down in his chair. "Did I miss anything."_

" _Apart from awesome?"_

" _Non"_

 _The two girls locked eyes again. Francine tried not to smirk, she'd win._

That was, arguably, the moment when their friendship ended and made May inevitable.

Toni still hadn't replied. Perhaps Francine should apologies.

 **..**

 **Ms. Victoria: Queen Victoria**

 **Mr Hussein: OC!Persia**

 **Winston De Valera: OC**

 **Francine's Papa: France**

 **Okay so that was a lot of adults talking. This won't be the last time, sorry. Okay so Ms. Victoria was an idea I had bouncing around the back of my mind. You don't get to see many monarchs and I needed a teacher that would push Alice for Mr Hussei** **n. I googled Iran's Hetalia name, took the surname and made that the surname of my OC for Persia because Persia originated in Iran and why, you may ask, is Persia a maths teacher? Well it's because a lot of the number systems we use originated in the Middle East and since most of those characters wouldn't be adults yet we use an Ancient, therefore Persia.** **Okay, as for Winston De Valera was me going fuck it, let's have some fun. Because, I kid you not, I spent half an hour researching famous British/Irish politicians that brought the countries together or through a tough time so I ended up combining Winston Churchill (that's the obvious one) and Eamonn De Valera. So for those of you who don't know, Eamonn De Valera was the Taoiseach of Ireland during WWII so this is kinda funny because the two HATED each other. Like they made speeches attacking each other. Seriously, google it. So yeah this was basically my way of having a bit too much fun naming a one time OC. And lastly Francine's Papa. I am a very big fan of France and I'm aware that Francine may not come out looking very good. And I want Francis to actually show some of the better aspects of France that Francine won't be showing, so yeah.**

 **Also yay? This update isn't as late as I thought it would be and it was pretty long, at least it felt pretty long to write.**


	13. Chapter 12

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen was having issues coming up with a suitable revenge plan. It was not for a lack of ideas, from a young age she'd always had prank ideas, she'd honed these skills and became more selective with her plans. This talent really showed itself during the May plan. Each victim had a specific prank tailor made for them. Bella changed how she looked to be considered pretty, Julchen simply changed her look to how she used to look like, or something vaguely close. It had been fun. It had been meant to destroy the social structure, the pyramid scheme, the dictatorship, whatever you wanted to call it, it should have been left reeling and been annihilated. But then it hadn't worked. She'd just been made into even more of a social pariah.

So this time she'd have to be smarter. The plan had to be better. This was the issue. She could bring a water gun and soak the Homecoming king of queen or spike the punch or, well she had a lot of ideas.

Julchen idly kicked a nearby locker. It rattled and there was the sound of books falling. She quickly hurried off. The only reason she was still at the school was that West had her first newspaper club meeting and Julchen was driving her home. It was always weird, being in the school when it was empty. The air was so still like the building was holding its breath, waiting for the flow of people to come back.

"Gott! I'm being so unawesome. And I didn't know I could be unawesome!" Julchen said out loud, pushing away deeper thoughts. There was one thing she loved doing in the empty school.

Earphones in, check. Volume set to max, check. Long hall way to air guitar down, check. She pressed play and German rock blasted into her ears.

Julchen was off, running around the deserted buildings, screaming the lyrics off key, doing something that could be interpreted as dancing. Someone opened a door and yelled at her to shut up, but why would awesome ever listen to some nerdy sophomore? She just laughed at their stunned face.

There was still copies of The List decorating the school. Ha, for all principle Germania waffled on about helping the students, she still hadn't taken down the very thing she was helping the students recover from but she shouldn't worry, Julchen will happily do it for her.

Still yelling German lyrics, Julchen tore at the pages stuck to the notice boards. She wasn't exactly doing a tidy job, leaving the upper parts of the pages still stapled to the wall but she really didn't care. Skipping past a trashcan, she tossed the paper in. About half of them missed and were now littering the floor nearby.

The music was reaching a climax. There was a decent length of smooth floor ahead of Julchen. She ran and dropped to her knees, skidding across the polished floor and came to a standstill just beside the comfy chairs. Chuckling to herself, Julchen tried to stand up but then awkwardly fell over. Okay so that was the only not awesome bit of that routine.

On the floor she spotted a page under one of the chairs. It was probably another verdammt List. She slid it out and crumpled it into a ball and was about to throw it into the trashcan when she spotted something. She folded it out and stared at the page.

The thing she'd noticed was a smudged stamp. The back of the page was covered with stamps, they were smudged or too faint or one side had more ink than other. It looked like someone was practicing using the stamp. Julchen touched the stamp marks, they were perfectly dry. Julchen turned the page over. It was The List except

 **FRESHMEN**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

EMILY BONDERVICK

What? Emily Bondervick? It didn't add up. Although even stranger was that Emily's name was circled in sharpie and a question mark beside it. The whole thing was puzzling.

I mean, why was it even under the chair?

..

Elizaveta liked coffee. She also was fond of tea but for now coffee would do. Yeketerina was a tea person while Bella adored coffee. This just meant that the three of them often ventured to cafés after school. Elizaveta was still a bit uncomfortable with Bella, she wasn't sure if Bella had written The List. Although Bella was trying to convince her otherwise. Yeketerina was nervously watching her two best friends.

"Elizaveta?"

She looked up to Bella's imploring face.

"Yes?"

"I didn't do it. I swear I didn't write it."

Elizaveta dropped her gaze. "Well, maybe you wrote or maybe someone else did, I don't know. I'll never know."

"Can't you just believe me?"

"Erm.. I have a suggestion." Yeketerina said suddenly, causing both the Belgian and Hungarian to look up at her.

Gulping nervously, the blonde girl said "Why don't we find out who wrote The List?"

Bella and Elizaveta stared at her then at each other. Bella laughed "Yes! If we find out who wrote it then you'll know I'm telling the truth."

Elizaveta turned the idea over in her mind and examined it. They could theorise all they wanted, most of the school did, but unless they did anything they would never find out. But even if they managed to guess the right person they could just deny writing it, so would it even be possible. Unless they found the stamp then it would be fruitless. And even if they got the stamp, what then? The stamp was what made The List 'official', it was the only thing preventing there being several competing Lists. So even if the three of them guessed the right person, managed to get the stamp off them, in time there would just be far more Lists without the official one. But on the other hand, finding out who wrote it would bring closure and she could trust Bella again.

The other two girls were looking at her with expectation. She it wouldn't do any harm to find out.

"Yes, it's a good idea."

…

Bella pulled a copy of The List, Yeketerina a copybook and some pens and Elizaveta took her phone out and opened Facebook, from Facebook have the names and faces of everyone from the school.

"I think" Bella said, flattening out The List "We should eliminate all the freshmen. There's no way they wrote it."

Elizaveta nodded in agreement.

"Well" Bella said business like "We can rule out boys. This has always been a girl thing. The boys just watch it happen."

"I also think that no sophomores wrote The List." Yeketerina offered.

"Agreed." Elizaveta said and took a sip of her coffee. "They were only freshmen last year. They wouldn't have a vendetta against Julchen the way older years do."

"What do you mean a 'vendetta against Julchen'" Yeketerina asked puzzled.

"Well look at the choices." Elizaveta gestured towards the page. "Julchen herself, obviously. Monika, they're sisters and Monika is a sweet kid so she wouldn't be on it unless someone really wanted to hurt Julchen."

"Really?" Bella interjected.

"Yeah. She was always looking after Julchen, cleaning her messes so their parents wouldn't know." Elizaveta stared at her coffee. "She's nice."

"Oh I was just surprised." Bella murmured.

Elizaveta looked up sharply. "And why would you be?" She asked accusingly.

Bella shifted under Elizaveta's ferocious gaze. "It was just last week I heard her saying stuff about how the girls in Mount H.E.T.A. never used their brains and only cared about superficial things."

"Isn't that the case?" Asked Yeketerina in confusion.

Elizaveta still glared at Bella. "She's a good kid and doesn't deserve being on The List." She stared at the list of names. They were all people too "None of the 'uglies' deserved to be on The List!"

"Er.. Liza, you're standing up. Sit down" Bella whispered urgently. Elizaveta blushed, realising she'd stood up and was getting weird looks. She sat down hurriedly.

"So not sophomores?" Yeketerina said awkwardly.

"Yeah, not sophomores." Elizaveta said embarrassed.

"It isn't Julchen or the witch and her friends."

"Probably wasn't that girl Francine is friends with, what's her name?" Elizaveta asked. Bella gave her a confused look. "You know, brown hair, wears it in bunches with red ribbons, fairly short."

A look of recognition crossed Bella's face "It's Michelle or something."

"I think it's Angelique." Yeketerina piped up "Anya has mentioned her. Says she's annoying."

Elizaveta gestured to Yeketerina. "Right. Well, her. She's too much of a blabber mouth to have written it."

Bella gave Elizaveta a puzzled look. "You don't know her name but you know that." She said in disbelief.

Elizaveta shrugged. "I doubt Francine wanted her to chat about the fact Francine likes _Julchen_ more than most of the popular girls."

"Definitely a blabber mouth." Bella nodded.

They continued to debate different students but Elizaveta kept mentally coming back to the girls named ugliest. The whole thing was unfair but what if the next List was just for the prettiest. Of course this still would be damaging but it wouldn't be as bad.

"So we basically have narrowed it down to all seniors and juniors?" Elizaveta summed up.

"Yeah.." Bella and Yeketerina said dejectedly.

"This is going to be hard…" Elizaveta trailed off.

 **..**

 **Do I have an excuse for having a late update? No. Is there any real reason for it to be late? No. So then why is it late? I dunno. Will the next update also be late? ….Maybe? I don't know.**


	14. Chapter 13

**FRESHMEN**

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika didn't really mind shopping. Onkel Otto had taken her to a bookshop in New York. She'd been amazed at the size of the shop, three floors of books of all colours and shapes. She couldn't reach the high up books and Onkel Otto had to get them down for her. There had been so many she'd wanted to read right there and then. But then Julchen through a fit and they had to leave. Julchen then got a lecture and was sulky for the rest of the visit.

Monika had always been closer to Onkel Otto than Old Fritz. She didn't get to see her onkel in person much because he still lived in Germany, the only Beilschmidt brother to not move to America and sometimes when she was younger, she felt jealous of Julchen, having her favourite uncle living in the same city as her and being able to see him every other week. She didn't feel jealous of Julchen anymore. At least she still had Onkel Otto.

But back to shopping. Monika liked book shopping and stationary shopping but when it came to clothes shopping, well, clothes were clothes. There wasn't much too it. All of Monika's clothes were comfortable and practical, baggy pants, warm jackets, long coats, dark colours because they didn't show the stains. But apparently these clothes were unacceptable. And manly.

Manika

No! She was not going to think about The List. She was going to have fun with her friends, at least that was the idea.

Felicity was delightedly flitting around the store, grabbing dresses off railings. Emily was holding a purple dress at arms length, giving it a deeply suspicious look and Lilli was twirling with a green dress clutched to her chest. Monika moved to the nearest wrack of dresses and experimentally grabbed one at random. It was a tiny red thing that Monika seriously doubted would fit Felicity. The next wasn't as nonexistent and was a nice blue but when she put it against herself it was just wrong, in so many places but mainly in the shoulders.

"Ve, Monnie what do you think of this?" Felicity bounced over, a yellow dress in her arms. All the other dresses she'd been looking at were left in a pile on the floor.

"Feli, you left the clothes _on the floor!"_ Monika exclaimed, pointing at them.

Felicity turned in surprise as if she'd totally forgotten about something she did less than a minute ago. "Oh right!" She skipped back over and scooped the dresses back up, then dumped the pile into Monika's arms. Monika looked down at her load and then looked back up at Felicity.

"Why did you give these to me?" She asked flatly.

" _Because_ I think you'll look pretty in them." Felicity said proudly as though she'd just found the solution to world hunger. Monika, however, had her doubts, half of the dresses looked like they'd barely fit on her arm let alone her whole body. Felicity, sensing the tall girl's silent reservations said imploringly "Please try them. It'll be fun. We'll all be trying on outfits too."

Monika glanced at the other girls, Emily was giving Felicity a look that seemed to say 'I'd rather chew of my own arm then try on dresses' and Lilli was busy checking the prices on the dresses Felicity had deposited on her. The Monika looked back at Felicity who was giving her pleading puppy-dog eyes.

"Fine."

…

The fact of the matter was that it wasn't fun. Lilli seemed to be the only one who enjoyed herself, settling on a deep pink dress and she looked sweet in it, innocent. She had been rather conscious of the price, not wanting to buy anything too expensive because her family liked to save money.

Emily had been protesting most of the dresses and it took both Felicity _and_ Lilli used puppy-dog looks to get her to try on a white with a bow. She came out of the dressing room and Monika found it strange to see her without her brown jacket. But she did look nice.

" Emily you look very pretty" Lilli said sincerely.

Felicity clapped and bounced up and down. "You look muy-."

"Emily?" Asked a level voice.

The four girls turned to see a short boy with floppy brown hair, warm amber eyes and unique eyebrows looking at her.

Emily turned the same colour as Lilli's dress. "Leon! I didn't think you'd be here." She said panically.

The boy, Leon, held up a red dress. "I'm picking up Chun-Yan's dress." He said in the same monotone.

"Right that makes sense!" Emily said shrilly, her face somehow was turning an even darker shade of fuchsia.

Leon nodded, face still impassive. "Will I see you at Homecoming?"

"Er, yes?" Emily could barely speak anymore, her embarrassment being magnified by Felicity's delighted face.

"I'll see you then." Leon said without emotion. His face was still impassive. He turned and began walking away but then turned back and said "You look nice, Emily." And faintly smiled and left. So he _could_ feel emotion.

By now Emily was the colour of a beet. It was bizarre to see the typically indifferent girl so flustered. Felicity was giggling madly and Lilli was trying hard not to laugh.

"You _like_ him!" Felicity giggled.

"I hate you all!" Emily declared storming into the dressing room. That was the final straw and Lilli began laughing. Emily glared at them all one last time before attempting to slam the curtain closed. Monika felt slightly put out, she hadn't done anything to warrant that reaction.

Emily emerged from the dressing room in her weird brown suit and bow tie still glaring at everyone. Monika couldn't help but chuckle at the indignant expression on the silver haired girl's face. Although she quickly regretted laughing when Emily reminded Felicity of Monika's lack of dress. "It's Monika's turn now."

So now she was in the changing room with a heap of dresses. Why was she doing this again? Oh yeah, Felicity wanted her to feel better. Suffice to say she wasn't doing a good job. Monika sighed and began to make her way through the pile.

The trouble with her build was that it would be at the bottom of the pile. If there were sweaters on display Felicity, Lilli or even Emily could simply whip off the top sweater, quick, simple, easy. Whereas Monika had to go to the bottom of the pile, see if it was even the right shape and sometimes they wouldn't even have a size large enough on the display and she'd have to look in a cabinet. Clothes just weren't made for tall, muscular girls.

Manika

Sometimes Monika wished her subconscious would shut up.

As a distraction she grabbed the next outfit and pulled it on. It was a stretchy black wad of material, it was sleeveless but rather low cut. It hugged her body the way most dresses covered Felicity and other girls. She looked, well, not _pretty_ but not ugly either. A green jacket, that lay discarded on the floor beside its corresponding dress, was looking enticing. Monika was cold wearing only a dress that only covered he shoulders. Shrugging the jacket on, she looked back at herself in the mirror.

"Monnie, are you ready?" Felicity's voice called.

Taking a deep breathe, Monika stepped out. Lilli beamed, Emily looked up in interest and Felicity smiled her sincere, happy smile. "You look so _pretty!_ "

Monika blushed. "Do you think so?"

Felicity nodded enthusiastically. "Turn around. I want to see all of it."

Monika slowly revolved on the spot and listened to the happy exclamations of her friends.

Friends.

Gupta and Eduard would never be interested in doing things like this. Maybe she had been wrong to totally dismiss fashion and beauty. Monika felt so elated. She turned to the vaguely Asian looking young woman folding the display clothes and happily asked how she looked.

The brunette gave her a slightly pitying look. "The dress is riding up at your back and is staring at the shoulders. It's the wrong shape, although you have a difficult shape. And the jacket isn't really doing you any favours." The woman didn't say it cruelly or with malicious intent, it was just the truth. The truth was that Monika wasn't pretty and she wouldn't ever be.

Emily gave her a slightly pitying look, Lilli looked upset and Felicity wasn't smiling. "Ve, we could try somewhere else?" This was the Fourth shop they'd stopped in. "Or we could try…" Felicity looked around, desperate to find something that would fit Monika.

"Felicity, it's fine. I'll change back but then I've got to go home, make sure Julchen hasn't been arrested or something." Monika said, putting her hand on Felicity's shoulder to stop her from continuing.

She got changed back into her own clothes and looked at herself in the mirror. She was tall for her age, especially for a girl, she was also broader and more muscled then was typical. Really her short hair only emphasised her masculinity.

But what did it even matter? It shouldn't matter, not when physical beauty was pointless. She'd always thought that, always said that

So then why could she not put The List away, move on with her life, not care that dresses didn't fit.

Was she shallow for caring?

She'd always called girls who obsessed over their appearance, shallow. The whole school seemed shallow. Julchen never cared and regularly mocked other girls who wore make up and high-heels, including Francine who was her friend.

So where did that leave Monika?

..

FELICITY VARGAS

Felicity wouldn't call today a complete success. For a moment she'd been certain that things had gotten better for Monika and then the lady had to say that Monika didn't look pretty, which was a lie, Monika had looked pretty and, more importantly, she'd looked happy. Monika didn't even end up buying the dress. Felicity suspected that she wasn't going to be going to Homecoming and that made her upset because every time she'd pictured the dance, Monika had been there, having fun. And now it didn't seem that way.

Discontented, Felicity stirred the vat of pasta. One of the chefs had called in sick so Grandpa Roma had asked Lovina and Felicity to help make some of the simpler dishes, although Lovina always scoffed that _all_ the dishes were simple. Café Roma, despite its name doubled as a small restaurant in the evenings. Grandpa Roma had done so, to maximise profits. So here she and Lovina were, cooking in a real kitchen, it wasn't the first time but Felicity loved how professional it was, it made her feel important.

Felicity glanced over at her sister, who was chopping up tomatoes like they'd personally offended her. Felicity sighed. Lovina was another mystery she didn't know how to cheer up. Of course Lovina had always been kind of a bitch but now she wasn't angry, at least not in her usual way, she was, well, sulking. Felicity wasn't really sure how to ask her sister. Lovina was like a nettle, stinging you if you weren't careful and requiring firmness or bluntness to not be painful. Felicity could do bluntness.

Glancing one last time around the kitchen, Felicity opened her mouth. "Sorella, why are you upset?"

There was a loud exclamation from the other side of the kitchen, followed by a fair amount of Italian swearing. There was a pause in the swearing for Lovina to yell "Get me some fucking band-aids!"

…

Lovina had missed the tomato she'd been chopping and hit the side of her finger when she'd heard Felicity's question. Now they were sitting in the small kitchen above the restaurant, Felicity had the first-aid box open on her lap and Lovina's hand stretched in front of her. She cautiously dabbed at the cut with an antiseptic wipe and Lovina let out a low hiss of pain.

"So?" Felicity asked idly.

"So what?" Lovina snapped, wincing as Felicity applied the wipe again.

"Why are you being all" Felicity waved her hand around while trying to find the word and hit Lovina in the face.

"Idiota!" Lovina yelled. "Next time, I'll do this myself."

"Sorry, sorella. Hmmmm, I wonder if pasta helps with healing." Felicity murmured, getting lost in a tangent " It probably does. Ve, we should have pasta after I'm done." Lovina gave an exasperated sigh. "You haven't answered my question" the younger sister pouted.

"Because every time you ask it causes me pain!" Lovina grouched.

"I said I was sorry. Oh wait, did I? Well I'm really sorry."

"Yes idiota" Lovina said, massaging her head to soothe the oncoming headache. "You've already apologised three times, four now, you don't need- Ah!" The wipe returned to the cut.

"Sorry!"

Lovina gave her sister a long look that Felicity couldn't interpret. "You want to know why I'm 'upset', even though I'm not 'upset', I'm never upset, ever. That's what you want to know, si?

"Si." Felicity confirmed. "I'm worried about you."

Lovina rolled her eyes. "Why are you friends with the potato bitch?"

Felicity was totally taken aback. "Monnie? Because she's nice and strong and smart and really nice and-."

"Okay, but how can you _like_ her?"

"Because she's nice." Felicity replied, perplexed.

"You already said that." Lovina said irritably.

"But I don't understand what that's has to do with anything?"

"I don't like potato bitches. They're backstabbers."

"No! No she's really nice and she was scared I'd betrayed _her._ Why would you even think that?"

Lovina blushed and muttered "I'm worried about you."

Felicity gasped "Lovi, you _do_ care about me!"

"No, no I don't!" Lovina spluttered. "Just put the fucking band-aid on."

"Oh right." Felicity began looking through the band-aids. The one with tomatoes was cute but so was the pink one, which to choose. "But why would you worry about me having friends? You don't mind Emily or Lilli?"

"Yeah, I don't mind puffin bitch or gun bastard's sister but I don't trust potato bastards. I am not wearing that."

"But _why?_ "

"Because it's got puppies on it, just grab a plain band-aid. Dio, you are never doing this again."

Felicity put away the offending band-aid. "That wasn't what I meant."

Lovina sighed and became focused on her fingers. There was a silence as she collected her thoughts. "You know I tolerate Toni."

"Yes." Felicity passed Lovina a plain band-aid.

"And you know most of his friends are bitches." Lovina began to put the band-aid on the cut, not meeting Felicity's gaze.

Felicity nodded. Lovina's favourite hobby was complaining about people.

"Toni, er, well he's a fucking idiot. He trusts anyone, literally _anyone_. He trusted a potato bitch and then she was a complete bitch to a bunch of people and doesn't speak to Toni." Lovina paused and stared at her hands, her fingers drummed against the table. "Toni, being an idiot, went to try to talk to her and then she ended up just yelling at him. And Toni was fucking upset and then he tries and helps me instead of being upset. He's a-." Lovina began her typical tirade in Italian.

Felicity didn't have an off switch and if she had questions she'd ask them even if the person she was asking wasn't paying attention. "Is that why you're upset? Who yelled at Toni? Was this recent? Why haven't I heard about this? What is the-."

"Shut up. No, I'm not upset! The potato bitch yelled at Toni during Summer and-."

"But if it happened in Summer, why are you upset now?" Felicity interrupted.

"Stop saying I'm upset! I'm not! Toni is just too fucking nice and I don't get why he's so nice to _me_." Lovina's voice reached a crescendo and then seemed to fall in on herself. "The List really knows how to be harsh." She said more to herself than Felicity.

"Lovi?" Felicity asked. Moving over to her sister. "Are you-."

"I'm fine." Lovina looked up and stared at Felicity. "You don't know how I met Toni, do you?"

Felicity shook her head. Lovina left and went into their room, returning quickly. There was a crumpled page in clutched in her hand. She tossed it into the table and leaned back in her chair. Felicity leaned forwards and looked at the paper.

 **The List**

 **FRESHMEN**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

LOVINA VARGAS

Stop being a bitch and maybe you'll be pretty.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

NATALIA BRAGINSKI

Beauty must run in the family!

 **SOPHOMORES**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

LUKA BONDERVICK

It's like she's trying to be as ugly as possible.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

ANGELIQUE MANCHAM

Everyone's got the hots for the new girl.

 **JUNIORS**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

CHUN-YAN WANG

Acting like a Mom makes you seem like a middle-aged woman.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

YEKETERINA BRAGINSKI

Very impressive 'assets'. ;)

 **SENIORS**

 _ **Ugliest:**_

VIET LING

Rough around the edges is the only way to describe Viet Ling.

 _ **Prettiest:**_

PORTA CARRIEDO

All hail this years Homecoming Queen.

Signed: The Author 2016

Felicity stared up at her sister. Lovina was on The List. "Lovi…" Felicity started to speak but couldn't find the words.

Lovina coughed " There are a lot of bastards in school. There are fucking scary bastards. Using The List as a reason to attack someone is common. Don't look so surprised. God, you're so fucking oblivious. Toni just rushed in. Got the crap beaten out of him because he's an idiot." Lovina paused. "Then he wouldn't leave me alone and he needed _someone_ to keep him from being so stupid. And the fucking List had to remind me of all that and-."

Lovina was cut off by the hug Felicity was giving. Felicity held her as tight as she could, she didn't want to let go, her face was buried in Lovina's hair.

"Get off me." Yelled Lovina. "I don't need pity." She kept trying to push the younger girl off her.

"I'm not letting go." Felicity mumbled.

Lovina's awkward squirming eventually stopping and she wrapped her arms around Felicity. They stayed there for several minutes, two sisters locked together.

"Where are my two favourite girls?" Grandpa Roma said entering the room. "Oh, you're getting along, I'm so happy!" He clapped his hands in delight.

Lovina promptly pushed Felicity away from her and was about to yell that no, they were _not_ getting along but instead squawked as their hair had gotten tangled up. Lovina was yelling, Felicity was crying and Grandpa Roma was laughing as he untangled them. Life was getting back normal.

But it still wasn't normal.

 **..**

 **Leon: Hong Kong**

 **Viet Ling: Vietnam**

 **Porta Carriedo: Portugal**

 **Sorry. I know, I know two weeks but in my defence…. I don't really have a defence. Hey at least the chapter's long. It kinda feels like an exposition dump but tell me what you think. I'm concerned about Lovina, I don't think I wrote her in character but I needed her to open up about things. And yep The List from the year before. Not really very necessary but it helps fill in somethings. Gotta say, writing EIGHT more snide comments about Hetalia characters is hard so they might be a bit generic. And a little HongIce. It's not my favourite ship but it's cute. When I'll next update, I have no idea. Christmas and all so who knows when my next update will be. It may not be as long as this chapter but it will contain Felka and Toris having relationship drama, so that'll be cool if I can write it decently.**


	15. Chapter 14

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

Felka played with her hair, plaiting and unplaiting three stands in front of her face. Her habit was golden and when it was in plaits it looked like rope. Some girls could wear their hair in plaits, Hedvika always looked nice with them but they didn't suit Felka. She wore her hair down, it was too short to do anything with it. Natalia had lots of hair, long and silky, reaching all the way down to her waist. It was pretty hair.

Felka stared down at her nails. The bright pink nail varnish was chipped and the pale pink of her nails visible beneath. The nail varnish was chipping away revealing the ugliness underneath.

It was rare for Felka to be in school before Toris but she needed time to work out what she was going to say although she'd spent most of this prep-time fiddling with her hair or examining her nails. But, well, she had no idea how to broach the subject with Toris. How do you ask your boyfriend if they like someone else? Why was everything so complicated? It didn't need to be or was it wrong to think things were simple?

Felka put her hand into her pocket and pulled out the note. She hadn't received any other notes but really she didn't need anymore. The note and the talk with Francine was more than enough.

The main doors opened and a flood of students came in. A bus must have arrived. Felka spotted Natalia and her sisters. Felka didn't like them, alright she didn't really know anything about the oldest one except that she had massive 'assists' and as for the middle sister, Anya, Felka couldn't stand the girl. In fact she hated her even more than she hated Natalia. There were other students like Kiku, the Japanese boy had his head buried in a 3DS. And there was Toris. Oh god.

"Toris" Felka managed to choke out. "Can we, like, talk?" Toris looked up, surprised that his girlfriend was in before him. "Sure."

Felka led Toris to the servant stairs, they were suitably private. She looked at the wall away from Toris. She suddenly had no idea how to speak. Toris took her hand, this usually comforting act only made her more nervous. "Felka, are you feeling alright?"

Felka stared into Toris' concerned face. His hair was flopping into his green eyes, it was cute, Toris was cute even if he had an awful fashion sense. "Toris, I… I mean, do… you like me?"

Toris blinked in surprise. "Felka, of course I like you." He said awkwardly.

Felka nodded. "Right, right. I, like, thought so but, like, Toris, do you, like, _like_ like me?" It took Toris a moment to decipher what his girlfriend was asking him under all the 'like's.

"Felka, I .. why do you want to know all of a sudden?" Toris deflected the question obviously, confirming what Felka had feared.

"Toris, I mean, are you…. Do you .. like, like Natalia?" Felka said, stumbling over her words, uncertain how to phrase a question.

"Felka, I.." Toris stared at Felka who had tears pricking in her eyes.

"Be honest." Felka pleaded.

"I…. I do.. care about Natalia." Toris said dropping his gaze to the floor.

Felka swallowed. There was a lump forming in her throat. She'd known what he was going to say but it still hurt to hear it. Even after the note, Francine and even her own suspicions she'd still hoped that maybe Toris didn't care about Natalia but clearly no, that wasn't the case and it hurt to know.

"You like her more than me, right?" She sniffed. The tears were beading in her eyes, threatening to overspill. "Like, everyone's been saying that. That I shouldn't, like, be with you but I want to. I like you Toris. I, like, really do! And-."

"Felka." Toris interjected. "What are you talking about?"

Felka passed him the folded note she'd found in her locker on Tuesday. It had well worn crease lines and the paper was soft from the amount of times Felka had folded and unfolded it. Toris' lips moved when he read, mouthing the words. English was his second language and no one could blame him for having some difficulties with it.

Toris looked up from the note and looked at Felka. "You're not fake, Felka."

Felka dismissed this with a wave of her hand. The List was only the catalyst to all this, it wasn't important right now. Or was it? Natalia was named prettiest last year and Felka was named ugliest was that why Toris still cared about Natalia. "Toris, if you, like, had to choose between me and Natalia, who would you choose?"

Toris now, had tears forming in his eyes. "You can't just ask me that. You can't."

"Toris, if you, like, wanted to be with Natalia but you stayed with me and weren't, like, completely, hundred percent happy, then, then, that's not, like, fair." It was becoming hard to speak clearly and her eyes were itchy. Why were they so itchy?

"I don't want to make you upset." Toris said quietly. He was always so quiet, like he didn't want to disturb the air. It made his emotional outburst so startling.

"Just, like, be honest. I.. I, like, _like_ you but, like, like… like" Felka managed to get out. The tears were flowing freely down her cheeks and she was making that unattractive gasping noise of someone crying hard.

"I.. if you really want me to be honest." Toris said as though regretting every word he was saying. "I… I .. think of you more as a friend than—."

"Than a girlfriend?" Felka hiccuped.

Toris nodded weakly, his eyes wet. "I'm sorry."

Felka sniffed and tried to brush the tears off her face, rubbing her eyes and getting her hands wet. "Is… is this the end of.. of.. us?"

Toris didn't answer immediately. He looked at Felka's puffy, red face, then stared at the floor. The internal debate visible on his face. Felka watched him intently, continuing to brush the tears away. She wasn't sure what answer she wanted. She didn't want to break up Toris, definitely not, but then again, Toris had been abundantly clear that he didn't like Felka the way she liked him. Did Toris ever love her? Of course he must have at some point but when did he stop?

"Felka?" Toris lifted his head up to look directly at the blonde girl. "I.. think that, yes, it is. .. I'm sorry."

Felka gulped and nodded. "Right." Her voice caught. "Right." She choked out. "If, if we're not going to be, like, together then.. then… we're still friends, right?"

Toris nodded and pulled Felka into a hug. Felka clutched her boyfr- her friend. Tears still seeped out of her eyes, causing parts of Toris's hair to grow damp. The moment had echoes of a similar moment mere days ago and yet the two of them were simultaneously closer and more distant than they were on Monday morning. Felka whispered, so quietly that Toris wouldn't be able to hear "Don't leave me. Please."

They stood locked together until the bell rang. Toris let go of Felka slowly and looked at her.

"I have to go to class, you have a free now don't you?"

She shook her head. "No I have class now."

…

It was later. Felka had her last free for the day. Normally she would be with her friends but now that wasn't what she wanted to do. She wanted to be with Toris, him patiently listening to her plans to make Poland a warm tropical island or to turn ponies into unicorns.

Felka watched the other students mill about below her. She was sitting midway up the main stairs, down below her were lockers and some chairs and people were chatting and getting books. How many of them were gossiping about her? All the sophomores would be, that was a given but she'd almost wanted to cry when a freshman spotted her and began whispering to her friend.

She leaned her head against railings. There was Elizaveta and her friends. They were leaving, probably going out for a late lunch. Felka liked Elizaveta. They were neighbours and the Hungarian was always nice to the younger kids. She was the only one on The List who deserved it.

The List.

On Monday it had seemed as though that was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. Just how long had she been oblivious? Was she still? Maybe she missing things right under her nose and not even realising? Toris was observant. He noticed things. He didn't like gossip but Felka always pressed him for it. Looking back it was no wonder everyone thought they were a doomed as a couple.

Felka ran her hand up and down a railing. Julchen had been at her locker the whole time, she now hurried after Elizaveta and her friends. Julchen, the girl with no friends. Last May Felka had been just a freshman, she hadn't been involved in the destruction and had no idea what had caused Julchen's revenge spree, there were plenty of rumours of course and Felka personally subscribed to idea that Julchen was angry that Elizaveta got new friends and a boyfriend. But whatever the reason, Felka had enjoyed watching the older girls come to school in various states of disorder. She'd found it funny at the time. Karma had caught it up to her now it seemed.

Footsteps echoed up the stairs and Felka could sense someone approaching her from behind. She didn't move. She wasn't in the mood.

The footsteps stopped and there was a rustle of clothes as the other person sat down on the stair beside her. A hand was placed on Felka's shoulder.

"Hey." Said a quiet voice. Felka didn't move to acknowledge Hedvika.

"How are you feeling?" The Czech girl asked cautiously. Felka still didn't move. "Hey, come on. Look at me." Hedvika said softly.

Felka stared down to the lockers way below them.

"Okay. That's okay. If you want to talk I'll be here." Hedvika said but Felka wasn't listening to her friend, her mind was away with a pool and a warm Summer when everything seemed possible.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

Madeleine's favourite part of school had always been the classes. This wasn't a popular opinion but Madeline thought that learning was interesting. At any rate, it was superior to lunch when she would stand beside Amelia, not speaking, being ignored. When they were younger it was just them against the world. They had their own games, jokes even a private twin language. They had only needed each other. The Amelia became more out going and Madeline became more forgotten. It had been lonely.

But now Madeline had learnt something about herself. She was introvert and having to constantly be social was draining and she did not like it _at all._

"Have you heard?" Said one of the girls, gleefully leaning in to share the gossip. "Felka and Toris broke up!"

Madeline tried not to roll her eyes. This was the third conversation she'd had that had brought up Toris and Felka's lack of a relationship. Honestly it was becoming ridiculous and Madeline felt bad for Felka. It wasn't nice to be centre of the school's attention.

"Oh my God! No way! Like, I heard that but I still can't believe that." Exclaimed a girl with chocolate coloured curls.

"Yeah. I heard that he's dating Natalia now!"

"Really? Cuz I heard that he already was dating her and Felka found out and they had massive fight."

Now this Madeline had trouble believing. Toris? The most unassuming boy she'd ever met, cheated on his girlfriend then had a fight with her. It seemed totally over the top.

Madeline opened her thermos of coffee. She needed _something_ to give her a boost. The thermos had been a gift from Alice although Madeline suspected that she'd only given the gift as an effort to one-up Francine.

"That's a really nice thermos. It's cute." Chocolate-Curls said kindly, in an attempt to bring Madeline into the conversation. The other girls chimed in with their opinions.

"Thank you. It was a gift." Madeline said softly.

She looked out of the circle of girls to see Amelia eating a Big Mac by herself. Amelia always ate when she was upset.

The conversation had somehow drifted to the subject of holidays in different countries.

Madeline fiddled with her skirt. Oh yes, she was still angry at Amelia, no doubt about it. But it was Amelia. Amelia, her twin, her best friend. Sure, things had changed but it was still Amelia. She should talk to Amelia. But should she apologise? That was what she always did, apologise then Amelia would forgive her and then it'd go back to normal. They'd gone through this cycle many times and Madeline was sick of it by now. No, she wasn't going to apologise, not this time. Amelia would.

So should she talk to her now?

Madeline slid, unnoticed, out of her chair and walked over to Amelia's table. But before she could reach it, Amelia seemed to make a decision and hurried off. Well, that was surprising. It was bizarre behaviour, even for Amelia. Madeline's curiosity was peaked and she followed followed her twin.

Amelia moved quickly through the school with Madeline scurrying after her, thankful for her natural quietness. This game of following a follower across the school ended at the library. Amelia seemed to dither at the doorway and Madeline watched her from behind a corner. Amelia seemed to be debating whether or not she should enter before taking a deep breath and pushing the door to the library open and walked in uncertainly. Madeline walked over quickly and entered.

The library wasn't a well travelled area of the school, except by couples. Everyone knew that the foreign languages aisle was where couples went but that want where Amelia was heading, she was going to the history reference books section. Amelia did like history, particularly American history, but it was still weird.

Madeline crept after her and saw that Amelia wasn't alone in the aisle, Kiku was examining the books. Madeline suddenly felt like she was trespassing on something. She was good at reading her twin and Amelia was extremely nervous and unsure. It was odd considering Kiku was Amelia's friend. Did she need advice from him? Or maybe she wanted to talk about some issue? Or maybe…. no, no way. That couldn't be it? Was it?

Madeline retreated out of the library. She didn't want to intrude, just in case she was right. She was still angry at Amelia but she wasn't going to interrupt … whatever that was.

Madeline walked back to the place she was eating lunch. The girls were still chatting about nothing. Madeline doubted they even noticed she'd left. She'd thought The List would change how people viewed and treated her and sure maybe they did but not by much. Instead she and Amelia had one of the worst fights in years and Felka and Toris broke up. What was even the point?

 **..**

 **The Zombie has risen and death is reversed. The zombie speaks and says "Happy late Christmas and late New Years."**

 **Heheheheheh so yeah it's been awhile. But shouldn't Christmas be an excuse for not writing? Probably not because I see all these other stories updated and I'm like "DAYUM how do you the motivation?" So yes I wasn't feeling all that motivated. (I had no idea about what I was going to do with Madeline).**

 **And I was in the West of Ireland for awhile and there was no computer for uploading, actually there wasn't really anything out there. I am very glad to have returned to civilisation. And don't you Galway/Mayo people start getting offended and say that Galway has a city. No, no it does not. It has an unusually large town. Ireland has one city, Dublin and maybe Cork, maybe.**

 **Alright now that I've totally alienated all the non-Irish, time to discuss what just happened. So Toris and Felka just broke up…. it's sad but I don't feel that Felka, right now, is mature enough to have a romantic relationship. Maybe in the future they'll get together. Maybe I'll write a spin off in the future. I don't know. :P Oh and next chapter with the sophomores will conform or deny if Madeline's theory is correct.**

 **Hopefully I won't take a month to update next time. Hopefully.**


	16. Chapter 15

**JUNIORS**

ALICE KIRKLAND

Alice scrolled listlessly down Tumblr. It was simply a method of killing time, a lot of what she did was a method for killing time. Her own blog was rather devoid of original content, consisting of reblogs of stuff that was vaguely amusing. It was her second account, her first one she hadn't gone on in… how long had it been? Probably not since December. No, wait. She'd put up a message in January. The message simply said that she wouldn't be uploading anything for awhile.

Absentmindedly, she switched to the other account. It had a _really_ stupid name and Alice had been tempted to change it plenty of times but the people who followed her would probably be upset, for some reason they liked the name ' _ **Britannia_Angel423**_ '.

She'd gotten several messages from people asking if she was okay, when she'd be back, if she was dead and how she was feeling. It was ridiculous, people asking how she was feeling. They didn't _actually_ care, she was no more real to them than the fictional characters she had written about. And, oh yes, her stories. It puzzled Alice that they became so popular. Okay, it wasn't as though she was a well-known name throughout Tumblr but in certain circles _**Britannia_Angel423**_ was acknowledged and Alice was not quite sure why. She'd never set out to become famous and hadn't expected this level of success. Maybe Ms. Victoria had a point or maybe the internet just had _really_ low standards.

As Alice mused this, she began to feel quite thirsty. It was time for a cuppa. Out of all the groceries that Erin bought on a Saturday morning, tea was the thing that was consumed the most. While Peter would only drink a cup every other week, Alice had a cup in the morning, a cup after dinner and a full thermos of tea that she brought to school, which was always bone dry by the time she came home and somehow Erin managed to drink even more tea than that. Tea was an extremely important part of life as a Kirkland.

Alice walked into the kitchen and picked up the kettle. Vladimir and Luka were coffee people and when Alice had found out she'd almost disowned them as friends. At least that was what she said.

She put the kettle under the tap and filled it with water. There was a low hum of voices echoing throughout the kitchen. It was odd because Peter was at Paula's house today and if Erin and Alice weren't having a conversation, there was no one to be speaking.

The voices were starting to annoy Alice. She set the kettle to boil and took out a teabag and a tea cup, the cupboard was cluttered with the teacups Alice preferred and the mugs Erin liked, and began listening carefully.

The noise was coming from Erin's room, with its door flung wide open. It sounded like Erin was talking to someone and Alice looked inside to see her older sister spread out on her bed, talking to her phone. And Erin was- "Erin, who are you flirting with?"

It was always funny when Erin blushed. She was so pale that the blush however faint was obvious and right now Erin's face was the same colour as her fiery hair. "I'm not flirting- why would you ever- I mean I'm just talking to- Erika's my friend- oh sod off!"

She ran over and slammed the door but before it was closed Alice heard the person on the phone say "You are very obvious when flirting."

It was pretty funny, Alice had to admit and maybe it was because Erin was being embarrassed by someone she liked. Vladimir said she was rather sadistic, Alice didn't see it.

Erika... Erika. Where did she know it from? It was familiar but _from where?_

Erin's roommate in college. That was it. She'd never met Erika but Alice did see her in a couple of the Skype calls. Of course Erin stopped making those calls and basically stopped existing in Alice's life.

Alice was scowling again, being reminded of Erin's betrayal always did that.

She scowled at the kettle, ordering it to boil faster. It didn't. But oh no! It wasn't betrayal, according to Erin, it was a sacrifice.

And people wondered why she hated her sister.

She did look happy while in college, Alice supposed, taking the sugar out of a cupboard.

 _The computer was on in surprisingly good condition for a secondhand PC. The Skype icon bounced up and down happily as Alice clicked on it._

 _Her Mum leaned in to look at the screen. "So, you just press this funny little thing" she gestured at the icons on Erin's profile "and then you can video Erin."_

" _Yes, Mum." Alice said. It was sometimes hard being the only person who understood how to use technology._

" _Well, isn't that nifty!" Her Mum said in delight._

 _Yes, of course. The internet was wonderful, especially the communication._

" _Can we call her now?" implored Peter. "Please?" He was gripping the back of Alice's chair and bouncing up and down._

" _Peter, could you not?" Alice sighed at Peter, as she called Erin._

 _He stopped abruptly. "Sorry. I'm just really excited!"_

 _The happy bleep of Skype was cut off by an off white ceiling appearing on the computer._

" _Hi!" Erin's voice said, picking up the phone off the flat surface it had been on to reveal her grinning face._

 _Alice, her Mum and Peter all said variations on hello, drowning each other out until her Mum managed to shush them all and said to her daughter "So how are you? How was the flight?"_

 _Erin's face brightened. "Oh it was grand. The flight was okay , the lad who was beside me is doing Animation here, so that was pretty funny."_

" _Oh, that is amusing! Small world, I suppose. How'd you find out?" Her Mum asked, interestedly._

" _We just got to chatting and I find out he's going to Ireland for college and I ask him which and, well, turns out he's coming to this college, for Animation. Alfred's his name."_

 _Peter bounced up. "Erin, have you seen any sheep?" He was delighted to ask this as it was something he'd been wondering for awhile._

 _Erin sighed, bemused. "No, Petey, I haven't seen any sheep because I'm in a city."_

" _But I thought there were lots of sheep in Ireland?" Peter pouted. Alice rolled her eyes._

" _Well, yes, Petey, but there aren't sheep in a city." Erin said rather patronisingly._

 _With the lull in conversation Alice managed to ask the question she'd been curious about. "So what's it like being in college?"_

" _Well, I've only been here for a few days so I can't really_ _say." She commented, running her hand through her hair. " I really like the lectures, I mean I'm learning about something I'm passionate about not some fecking useless sonnets."_

"Erin! _Don't use that kind of language, especially not with Peter here." Her Mum interjected swiftly despite Peter being totally unfazed._

" _Sorry, Mum." Erin muttered._

" _So the classes are good?" Her Mum asked, returning to the previous topic. Erin's face brightened. "Oh yeah! I feck- I_ really _love the classes." She hurriedly corrected herself_

 _Her Mum nodded in approval at Erin's attempt at censoring herself. "And are you making friends?"_

 _Erin beamed, seriously how many times had Erin smiled this Skype call. "Oh yeah! There's this sweet Japanese girl, honestly she is such a cinnamon roll and there's this Italian boy who- hey, Erika" Erin said abruptly turning to talk to someone else. "What was the name of your one? You know the Italian." She clicked her fingers as she tried to remember 'the Italian one'. "Erika, you know your one, the one you threatened to shoot after he came into the girls' dormitory. Ah sure, never mind then." She turned back to her phone and grinned. "Anyway, there's this Italian man and he's an idiot but nice and_ amazing _at drawing. And of course there's Erika!" Erin managed to get even more excited at the prospect of talking about 'Erika'._

 _Erin moved the phone so that now Alice, Peter and her Mum could see the other half of the room, duct tape dividing the room into two halves of mine and thine, and the other girl on the opposite bed, reading a book._

" _Hey, Erika" Erin said, the grin almost audible in her voice. "Say 'hi' to my family"_

 _Erika didn't even glanced up from her book. "No."_

 _The camera spun around back to Erin's face. "So that's Erika, she's great!"_

 _Alice couldn't help but feel that discussing someone when they were a few feet away, was a bad idea. Her Mum clearly agreed as she quickly switched the conversation over to the campus, Peter occasionally interrupting with random questions. Alice didn't particularly want to join in. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk she just …. Actually that was_ exactly _it._

 _Her phone bleeped. It was a new message. Surreptitiously and without her family noticing, Alice took out her phone and checked it._

 _ **U should kill urself**_

 _So nothing out of the ordinary there._

Alice blinked. The kettle was hissing and steam was pouring from it. She quickly picked up the kettle and poured the boiling water into the prepared tea-cup. Why was she thinking about last year. Fuck people, they were always cruel. Fuck girls, they were even worse. Fuck Erin, she shouldn't have left.

The tea was boiling but Alice barely noticed and drank it quickly, burning her mouth.

Fuck her Mum, she should've noticed.

..

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Francine had mixed feelings towards romance movies. On the one hand, she adored anything to do with love, love was so beautiful and nothing could ever compare to it, on the other hand most romance movies were blatantly and unashamedly _American._ French romance films were superb and pure art but Toni didn't speak French so here they were watching a 'rom com'.

Francine had wanted to have a date with Toni before Homecoming, something more low-key and comfortable as opposed to the dancing and the excitement of Saturday. Toni had agreed, saying he wanted to spend some time with her, which was relieving as Francine had been concerned that there was something wrong. But that wasn't the case.

In the beginning of the movie Toni was laughing and making comments about the film, very involved. He even managed to get Francine to pay attention. He'd put his arm around her and she'd leant her head against him. And they'd kissed. And Francine's head fizzed like it always did when she kissed Toni. He wasn't that good at kissing, not really but because it was _Toni_ it was fantastic.

Then he'd mellowed out and now he'd fallen asleep. His hair was a total mess and Francine ran her hand through it, enjoying the soft feeling. When he fell asleep his face relaxed into a neutral, almost thoughtful expression very different from his permanent smile.

She'd always found it cute how peaceful he looked. The three of them used to spend the night at each other's houses and that was how she'd learnt of Toni's sleeping habits. He would go out like a light, one moment awake the next asleep. Julchen tended to pass out from tiredness, so she either fell asleep first or last. Her face always screwed up and she would mutter and move about, it was rather like she was fighting monsters in her sleep. They had the sleepovers at Francine's home. Toni had a large family and a small house, meaning no privacy and his older sister would always joke that Toni had a harem, which was more correct than Porta knew, and while Julchen's house was large her parents always sent signals that Francine and Toni weren't wanted, they probably thought they were a bad influence on Julchen and sure they never tried to stop Julchen, and joined in a lot, but they didn't cause her to be _Julchen_. So Francine's house it was.

Julchen

Why was Francine's mind coming back to her again and again? All throughout the day she'd picked Julchen's face out of a crowd, which wasn't hard considering her striking appearance, and her thoughts kept drifting back to the older girl.

And Alice. Her too. Francine had, subconsciously, been keeping an eye her and she wasn't quite sure why. Even when Angelique had been talking to her, Francine couldn't help but notice Alice sniggering behind Angelique as the Zombie hit the Vampire with a Physics book.

And, of course there was the big news of Felka's brake up. Most of the school had seen it coming and Francine knew that some people had actually been placing bets on when and how it was going to happen, Francine may or may not have made a bet, and people were talking about it. Mostly to tell Francine she'd been right but some asked her if she had a hand in it. Monica was among that group.

Monica hadn't been leaving Francine alone. Okay, scratch that. Monica wouldn't stop guilting Francine. And that was all she could think about when Toni put his arm around her. All she could see was Lovina's face. Was it any wonder that she want getting invested in the movie?

Francine sighed and shifted slightly, Toni was pretty heavy, and stared at the TV. Geeky-Protagonist was slow dancing with Pretty-Girl outside of the Prom. See! They were pretty, the girl was stunning and the boy, despite being the typical unpopular/nerdy boy, was handsome. Why in the movies did beauty and happiness go hand in hand and yet in real life, following this logic was deemed wrong. Wasn't that hypocritical?

The door opened and her Papa poked his head in. "Francine, are you still a virgin?" He winked.

Francine laughed at her Papa. "Yes."

He looked at Toni's sleeping form and looked back at her. "Will we move him into one of the spare rooms or will he want to go home?"

Francine looked at her boyfriend and gently moved one of his curls out of his face. "He'll probably go home. He doesn't have his school bag or fresh clothes."

"Well then, wake him up soon and I'll bring him home." Her Papa said. "And then, small angle, you will go to bed. I don't want you loose sleep because then you'll regret it on Saturday when you find bags under your eyes." He laughed good-naturedly and left the room.

Francine looked down at Toni and then back to the screen. The couple were kissing passionately now. She gently nudged him awake and bleary-eyed he woke up and smiled sheepishly at her and Francine felt her heart melt in his green eyes. He was so beautiful when he smiled. She leaned in and kissed him gently and he responded happily.

"Papa will drop you home if you go now." Francine said sweetly.

He blinked and Francine could see the wheels of his mind spinning, changing from default Spanish to English. "Ah, yes that would be good… what time is it?"

Francine checked her phone. "Twenty to ten, cher."

"Yes, yes. I should go now." He stood and pulled his jacket on. They walked down to the hall and her Papa went out to start up the car.

Toni took Francine's hand just as she was about to open the front door. "Franny" Francine liked having a nickname but wished it wasn't the one Julchen had bestowed on her. "Franny, I had a good time."

"I did too even though you fell asleep." She teased him "And we'll have another good time at Homecoming." Francine smiled that special smile she reserved for people she really cared about.

"I hope so!" Toni said, sincerely, he was so sincere all the time. "And I'm really glad we spent tonight together. Just I'd been hearing some things…" He trailed off.

"Like what?" Francine watched her boyfriend's face carefully.

He shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Just that you'd written The List and some other things…"

Panic rising, Francine asked him quickly "Who said that?"

"…Monica told me but I think, maybe, other people are saying it too."

Monica. How could she?

"And you believed this?" Francine asked coldly.

Toni suddenly realised his mistake. "No! Well maybe a little but not much! I swear." Francine nodded. Right he didn't believe what Monica said. It was okay.

Her Papa honked the horn outside, causing them both to jump. Toni glanced outside. "I shouldn't keep your Dad waiting." He leaned in and kissed Francine's forehead, making her smile.

And then he left.

 **..**

 **Erika: nyo! Switzerland**

 **Gasp. An update after only a week of waiting. Well I felt bad about the Christmas hiatus and I would have finished this sooner but the curse of writing Francine strikes again. Curse you Francine!**

 **Okay, I don't actually go on tumblr so if I got any of the terminology wrong please tell me because that would be really embarrassing. The tea thing is true. On average Irish people drink more tea than English people although the champions of tea drinking are the Turks. Bet ya didn't expect that.**

 **So the flashback is actually something of a teaser because there are several things I would like to write about in this universe that won't fit in the story. I want to write how Toni and Lovina met and show their relationship, I want the friendship between Kiku and Amelia that leads up to the talk in the library and I want to write about my OTP SwissIre. NEUTRAL SHIP FTW. Unenthused? I will show you how adorable and amazing this ship is once is create the expanded Listverse because we're seeing so much from Alice's perspective I want to go in detail into Erin's side of the story. Even though these oneshots aren't necessary, because you can pick up what was going on by just reading the main story, I'm just very fond of this world. Yeesh there's still about nine chapters left so I really shouldn't be sad it's over yet.**

 **Back to the actual story. Toni and Francine? I'm not good at writing couples, especially couples that I don't know too much about. And Monica, Monica, Monica you are a strange one, aren't you?**


	17. Chapter 16

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen tapped her pen against her journal. What to do? The tapping took on a beat. Music. People never thought she was a musical person, well they didn't think she was artistic or mathematical or productive or anything really, but Julchen did have a love of music and a soft spot for flute music. The glanced at the box, resting beside her atop the Bunker. It had been raining earlier and the deckchair was still wet so Julchen was sitting on a dry patch of roof, legs dangling off into space. Julchen had come to the Bunker to come up with a revenge plan but it's hard to plan revenge without knowing who you're mad at.

She'd never tried to figure out who wrote The List before. Every year there were plenty of rumours but no one ever actually figured it out.

Julchen threw her pen down in frustration which did nothing except make her even more mad as it was all the way down on the ground. She didn't want to jump down just to pick up a pen. Julchen stood up and kicked the tree. After venting she collapsed next to her box and halfheartedly tossed her journal into the box.

There was a clunk and the sound of paper tearing. Instantly Julchen flew upon the box, extracting the journal to examine the damage. One of the pieces of sheet music was torn. Julchen carefully, very, very carefully removed the sheet, folded it and put it in her pocket. That would need tape to fix. Julchen stared at the other items in her box.

She picked up the toy chick. Gilbird. She'd loved Gilbird, she still did of course but when she was younger she'd wear Gilbird on her head like a hat wherever she went. For a while she was known as 'that weird girl who always had a chicken. There were worse things to be known as.

Julchen turned Gilbird over in her so she could so every inch of it. She'd gotten it at an arcade. Her parents had been on a business trip and Fritz was looking after her and West for a weekend. Julchen had begged to do something fun with Elizaveta. Fritz always found it funny how close they were, joined at the hip was how he put it but Elizaveta did come with them to the arcade.

Julchen had been awesome and had beaten all the games. That was a lie, she actually kinda sucked but she'd had too much fun to really care. Besides, she was the air hockey champion. West had a surprising talent for shooter games although she was reluctant to try them.

Elizaveta was _awesome_ at crane games. Fritz payed for them each to have a go. Monnie failed rather spectacularly and got angry with the machine, even going so far as to curse it when she dropped a toy dog right before getting it to safety, Julchen managed to get the dog Monika dropped but Elizaveta managed to win a bird-like thing, a teddy bear and small yellow chick. Elizaveta was quite smug but then gave Julchen the chick. She'd kept it ever since, Julchen wasn't sure if she'd kept it as a token of Elizaveta's friendship or a good time with Fritz or just as a memory from childhood but by now she was ridiculously attached to the chick.

Gilbird. Julchen wasn't sure what really caused her to think of the name. Someone, she wasn't sure who, said it looked like a Gilbert and it stuck. Of course Gilbert wasn't an awesome enough name, hence Gilbird. Julchen smiled at the memory.

Good ol' Gilbird. The loyalist of all her friends.

Julchen checked her phone. She should probably head back to the school, it was still morning but she wanted to get that page fixed and then return it to the box. So she might as well start that now, maybe pick up some lunch along the way.

…

Julchen slipped into the music room in her search for tape. There tended to be some lying around as Ms. Smith was incredibly unorganised. The piano was silent for once and Julchen was thankful, she was not in the mood to see pussy music nerd, then again she was never in the mood. Julchen shifted some loose pages around to find duct tape. Of course it was the grade eight music tests, just the right spot for tape. She stuck a piece of tape over the tear very carefully. Once placed down, she smoothed it out and flipped the page over to be greeted by music notes. Good. Julchen had saved Fritz's music.

Fritz had always loved music, particularly his flute. He used to play all the time when Julchen was at his house. When she was young she thought he was making magic with his metal wand, it had sounded _that_ good. He'd taught her to play the flute. She hadn't really played much since. Julchen snorted. She was probably totally out of practice.

Julchen raised a hand to her face. It came back wet. Why was she crying? She was fine, she was _awesome_ , she was …. still crying. The music room always seemed to do that to her. That's why she didn't come in hear much.

The last time she had been alone in here-

 _Julchen picked up the flute. They were kept in the closets but really that was easy to break and no one would ever think that trouble-maker-Julchen Beilschmidt would ever bother breaking the lock on a music closet._

 _Julchen ran her fingers along the metal, feeling all the buttons. It was cold. Maybe it hadn't been played in awhile. The light layer of dust suggested that. Really it seemed ridiculous that a school would just have flutes lying around for anyone to steal._

 _Julchen dragged a music stand over to her and placed the sheet music on it with a level of care people wouldn't expect from Julchen. She raised the flute to her lips. Fritz had loved hearing her play. Julchen didn't like playing for anyone else, her parents never understood this. But she wasn't playing for anyone else, Julchen was playing for herself._

 _She took a deep breathe in and tried to blow. But it wouldn't work. The air just wouldn't leave her mouth. She was choking. Julchen collapsed onto the nearest chair, gasping, air rushing in and out, a horrible wailing noise leaving her mouth on every exhale. She raised one hand to her face and felt wetness._

 _Julchen tried to stand up, tried to breathe normally, tried to be_ Julchen _again but something stopped her and all she could do was bury her face in her arms and stay there, helpless and crying._

 _Julchen felt a hand touch her shoulder. She whirled around, holding the flute up in one hand as though she was going to hit the intruder but she never did. The intruder looked terrified at the prospect of being hit with a flute and was desperately shaking her head. "Please don't. I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Yeketerina was always overly emotional and her own tears were beading at the corner of her eyes._

" _What do you want?" Hissed Julchen, angry at being caught in such a state. Even as she said this, she had to raise a hand to wipe away fresh tears spilling from her eyes._

" _I-I… I just heard someone crying-"_

" _-I wasn't crying!" Julchen denied vigorously._

" _And I just wanted to make sure they were okay…" Yeketerina trailed off, unsure how to address a distressed Julchen. Julchen, in turn, could feel her ears burning._

" _Here." Yeketerina said handing Julchen a basket. Julchen took it, stunned. "I made a lunch for my sisters but then I remembered my father said not to spend time with them while at school and they already have their lunches so here you go." Julchen cautiously lifted the blanket off the basket to see a small pot of soup, fresh rolls and some weird cake thing that was probably Russian. Yeketerina smiled. "I hope you like it." She then left._

 _The lunch was excellent._

…

Julchen went down to her locker, she'd left her money in her bag. Yeketerina's locker was just near Julchen's and Bella and Elizaveta were standing by it, waiting for Yeketerina presumably. Julchen tried to tune them out but then gave up, Elizaveta had quite a carrying voice.

"I don't want to say it in front of Yeketerina but I think it might have been her sister." Elizaveta said in a theoretically hushed voice. "I mean I don't think either of them like Julchen and I know Anya doesn't like Amelia Williams so putting her sister on the prettiest would be a way to get back at her." Wait what. This conversation suddenly had Julchen's attention.

Bella nodded. "And Felka. Doesn't Natalia like Toris or something, that could be an explanation. I think you've got a point, either of them could have written The List."

So they were speculating on who wrote The List. Not an unusual pass time at this time of year but Julchen didn't remember Elizaveta engaging in it last year, although Elizaveta had changed a lot since this time last year. She'd become far less awesome.

"If one of them wrote The List" began Elizaveta "Then Yeketerina can look for the stamp in their rooms and _if_ it's there then that's the end of The List."

The end of The List? Well this was intriguing. The List being ended was one way to reek revenge on the people she wanted to reek revenge on and she'd find out who exactly it was she needed to reek revenge on!

Dimly, Julchen registered Yeketerina arriving and chatting to the other two girls. Everyone revered The List but no one wanted to be in contact with it, unless being labelled as prettiest. It was like a gossip magazine, everyone hungrily ate up what it said but no one wanted to be known as the person who writes the articles that destroy people. So if Julchen could find out who wrote The List, then expose them well that'd be a good revenge. And it'd be ironic. The author clearly cares about reputations so what better way to destroy them than by destroying their reputation. After all, like Fritz always said "Our work is to present things as they are."

But how could Julchen find out who it was? The only real way to figure it out would be by process of elimination with other people's thoughts mixed in because Julchen couldn't rely on what just she thought. So where to begin?

Elizaveta, Bella and Yeketerina were leaving.

Well that seemed like a smart place to start.

..

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Elizaveta swore that the waitress muttered "Those kids again." upon seeing the three of them in the café again. Bella found this idea amusing and suggested they ask for a discount. This caused all of them to giggle as they sat down at a booth.

After they placed their orders, Yeketerina pulled out the copybook they'd been brainstorming in yesterday. It was disheartening to see that their previous conclusion was that the author was a girl who was either a senior or a junior but probably a senior. Although they now had Elizaveta's suggestion of one of Yeketerina's sisters. When she'd suggested it, she'd been thinking about the middle sister, Anya. Anya was pretty destructive, observant, she didn't like Julchen or Alice, and _really_ didn't like Amelia. Elizaveta always wondered exactly what had happened between the two of them that was the spark for their rather entertaining rivalry but that wasn't important, what was important was that Anya was looking like a candidate for the author.

Only how where they going to suggest it to Yeketerina without the emotional girl crying. Yeketerina wasn't blind to her sisters' weirdness but was remarkably forgiving of it. Then again, Bella never seemed to have an issue with her brother despite his quite public drug use and Monika put up with all of Julchen's shit so maybe it was a sibling thing? As an only child Elizaveta wouldn't be able to tell.

While Elizaveta was mulling this over, Bella took a more direct approach. "Yeketerina, we've been thinking that your sisters are a possibility?"

Yeketerina blinked in surprise. "But they didn't."

Bella glanced at Elizaveta, silently asking for backup. Elizaveta said carefully "Bella and I just think there are some possible reasons for it to be either of them, so if you could just check…"

"What reasons?" Yeketerina asked, slight tremble in her voice.

Elizaveta fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "Well, Felka. Natalia likes Toris, right?" Bella nodded. "That's what you said."

There was a brief pause in the conversation as the waiter brought them their food.

Then Yeketerina resumed the talk where they'd left off. "Natalia didn't right it. She's not… that kind of person." Yeketerina seemed frustrated at her defence and looked like she wanted to say more but wasn't sure how. "She prefers directness. And she doesn't care…. Not about people's prettiness."

Well, that seemed true and Elizaveta supposed that Yeketerina probably knew more about how Natalia operated than either Elizaveta or Bella did. But she wasn't about to let this drop. "But what about Anya? She's sneakier."

And that was a fact. No one could forget the way she retaliated to Amelia's prank by sending a fake email to her parents from the school saying that Amelia was failing most classes and had been caught having sex while drunk in a locker room and then when Amelia's parents sent a reply Anya forwarded the conversation to everyone's email. It had been one of the most spectacular revenges until Julchen's that was. Actually, was the cold prank war still going on between those two?

Yeketerina's upset reply of "Anya wouldn't write The List." was drowned out by laughter. Rather distinctive laughter. No one other than Julchen hissed while laughing. The pale girl's head popped up from the booth beside them. Still laughing Julchen left her table and sat beside Yeketerina. "Now look at that." She said with an air of smugness. "You're making 'Rina sad and I thought you were friends? Kesesesesesesesese!"

Bella glared at Julchen. Despite what many people thought about Bella, it took a lot to make her mad at you but Julchen had crossed that line last May. "What do you want, Julchen?"

She leaned back comfortably, drinking in Bella's anger, Yeketerina's nervousness and Elizaveta's distaste. "Well, I heard you wanted to find out who the author is?"

"Oh and let me guess" Elizaveta started "You know who it is?"

Julchen shook her head slightly. "Nein" Oh God, Elizaveta remembered Julchen's habit of throwing in random German words to confuse people. "I don't know who made The List. I'm trying to find out. And I want to know who you think it is?"

Elizaveta stared at Julchen, trying to guess what was going on inside her head. Of course Julchen was trying to solve this mystery too, she was probably livid about The List, The List that was practically an attack on Julchen. So who did Elizaveta think wrote The List?

"Come on, come on. Mein Gott, I never thought you were slow, Elizaveta." Julchen said in a bored tone, as though Elizaveta was barely worth her time. Elizaveta's blood began to boil.

"Monica." She practically spat out.

"Liza, calm down." Bella said quietly putting a hand on Elizaveta's shoulder at the same time Julchen cried "My _Schweitzer!_ "

"No!" Elizaveta still held some affection to 'little West'. "Monica Bonnefoy."

Julchen cocked her head to one side in thought. "Who?" Yeketerina was also giving Elizaveta a puzzled look but Bella nodded thoughtfully, mulling over this new idea.

"Monica Bonnefoy, that's Monica with a 'C' by the way, is Francine's second cousin. And is doing the yearbook." Understanding flooded Yeketerina's face. Both Elizaveta and Bella were on the yearbook committee. Elizaveta was in charge of photos and Bella was the editor in chief. Monica wrote about various school events. It was the only reason either of them knew who she was. Monica wasn't really forgettable she was just lost in the more colourful personalities of her grade.

But now Bella turned to Elizaveta. "But why Monica? She's nice and I never thought she'd be someone really into all this" Bella waved a hand in an attempt to explain 'all this'.

"Well she's really smart and was named prettiest before so it's not impossible that she could make The List and get away with it. Her cousin is on it and was attacks by Julchen-" "-I never 'attacked' anyone-" "-and she does hold similar opinions to Francine." Elizaveta concluded. So maybe it didn't make as much sense as it had in her head.

"Does she have the same opinions as Francine?" Bella wondered. "Because she never seemed that way to me. I think it was Anya." She pressed, leaning forwards so they could hear her better. "She continues her war with Amelia through The List and gets to hurt other people she doesn't like, like Julchen. Although no one likes Julchen-" "-You guys are just too unawesome.-" " and really no one would ever dare ask her."

Yeketerina shook her head. "It wasn't Anya either. She despises The List after it insulted Chun-Yan last year." The three other girls stared the Ukrainian. She was right. They had all heard of Anya's anger that her future girlfriend had been attacked. "And if Anya makes an opinion on something, it doesn't change easily."

"It could still be her." Bella protested only to be cut off by a "Kesesesesesesesese." Bella shut her eyes and mutter what sounded like a prayer in Dutch. " _Yes?_ " She said with so much venom she would have put a snake to shame.

"You're doing this all wrong." Julchen declared. "If is known you had no good ideas I wouldn't have come." She began getting up to leave.

"Oh and _what_ exactly are we doing wrong?" Snapped Bella.

Julchen turned to look at her then looked at Elizaveta. "It's the fox and the bison." She got up and began walking away but then turned and said "If you're going to be smart about this be awesome, like me and ask the people who know _everything_." She then left without another word.

Yeketerina looked at Elizaveta in confusion. Bella was also giving her a similar look. The fox and the bison. That was something she hadn't thought about in _years_. Figures Julchen would remember it, she remembered everything that came out of Mr. Frederick's mouth.

"It was a story her uncle told us once." Elizaveta began.

"And you still remember it?" Bella said surprised.

Elizaveta shrugged. "Julchen used to reference it every now and then."

"So what does it mean?" Yeketerina asked curiously.

"Well, there's a fox and a bison in a snowy field. And I mean _really_ snowy. Like four feet of snow snowy. And beneath the snow there's grass and in the grass there's mice. So the fox and the bison both want to get down to the grass but here's the thing; the grass is only in some spots, mostly there's just mud underneath so the fox and the bison have to find a way to clear the snow where the grass is." Elizaveta took a breath and noticed the other girls eyes fixed on her.

"The bison tries moving as much snow as possible to clear wide arcs so to see things better but the fox gets an idea. It tries to listen for mice and it hears one and it jumps down, through the snow and catches a mouse.

The fox now thinks it's so much better than the bison and tries this trick again. All this time the bison has cleared a load of snow away. And the fox wants to show how much cleverer it is and it hears another mouse and jumps down into the snow.

"But this time there was no mouse and the fox gets stuck and can't move. The bison, meanwhile has found a huge patch of green grass. And the bison gets to eat his fill while the fox lost his mouse due to his pride and now has to go hungry." Elizaveta finished.

"I don't understand what that has to do with _anything_." Bella exclaimed.

"When Mr. Frederick told it, he was telling Julchen not to show off." Elizaveta sighed. "And that has nothing to do with The List!"

"Is that what it means?" Yeketerina piped up, looking surprised. "Because I thought it meant that leaps in logic can either help you or be totally wrong but being methodical will always get you a result."

Bella and Elizaveta looked at Yeketerina, stunned until Elizaveta managed "We don't give you enough credit, Yeketerina."

"So" Bella began "We have to be more logical when it comes to this and stop making leaps in logic? But we _are_ being methodical and logical and any other synonym you can think of." Bella rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"Well we have just been accusing people." Yeketerina put forwards.

"Or maybe" Bella said angrily "Julchen's just ducking with us and for all we know _she_ wrote The List and this whole things been a waste of time!" She slouched against the couch in despair.

"The people who know everything." Whispered Elizaveta.

"Hmmm?" Bella asked.

"The people who know everything." Elizaveta said, louder this time, comprehension dawning. "Oh Julchen likes to be cryptic and be the centre of attention but I know what she meant!"

"What?" Bella and Yeketerina asked at the same time.

"When we were younger and still friends, Julchen would take me around with her when she was planning pranks. But she always needed information before she should carry them out. So she'd go to the people who know everything." Yes it was making sense now.

"Who were these people?" Yeketerina asked, the excitement palpable.

"You never lived nearby, did you?" Elizaveta asked, offhandedly. "Everyone knew if you wanted information you went to the Bondervicks. Luka, she had a notebook with everyone's secrets in it. And that was when we were just kids! Can you imagine what's in it now? Go up to either sister and they'd offer you a price and then Luka would tell you what you needed to know."

Bella looked amazed by this. Of course her family was more economically similar to Francine's than to the Bondervicks. "I don't know if Luka still sells secrets but she's always been smart and hell I bet Alice Kirkland and the vampire also know their fair share of things." Elizaveta refused to call Vladimir by his real name under any circumstances.

"So we should go ask them." Bella exclaimed, Elizaveta's excitement rubbing off into her.

"Yes!" Elizaveta almost yelled. They were getting somewhere, they'd figure this out easily if they could get information out of Luka.

"Um, shouldn't we finish lunch first?" Yeketerina asked. Elizaveta blushed and started on her salad.

…

Vladimir left the bench the moment he saw Elizaveta, saying something about having an email to reply to or something. Alice was probably in class or something like that, leaving just Luka smoking a cigarette. She blew out a trail of smoke then turned to the three seniors. "Julchen said you'd be coming in a few days, so I presume she thought you were idiots who didn't understand her obvious clues." Luka inhaled and blew out smoke.

Elizaveta wasn't sure if she was angry at Julchen's blatant opinion that they were stupid and she couldn't remember something from only a few years ago or the way Luka knew exactly why they were here and what they were going to ask.

"We want to know who the author is." Yeketerina blurted out.

"If I knew who the author was" began Luka slowly. "The whole school would know because Alice would have publicly murdered them after I told her."

"What do you mean after you told her?" Asked Elizaveta cautiously.

"Alice is a very good friend of mine" Luka said lazily. "If I knew who attacked her, I would have told her long before you asked me. Partially so she wouldn't be screaming at me." Luka admitted.

"So you don't know anything?" Elizaveta asked despair rising up in her. If even _Luka,_ the girl who'd known her parents were divorced before even Julchen knew, didn't know who the author was then no one did.

"I never said that." Luka said sitting up. "If you want my advice, I'd say go talk to Monica Bonnefoy. She's smart and she told me enough to convince me that she knows _something_ about who wroteThe List."

"Thank you." Elizaveta said, turning over this piece of information. Monica. Monica knew something. They'd have to find out what.

..

 **Guess who's back? Back again? Willow's back, back again.**

 **There are too many Moni(k/c)as in this chapter.**

 **That thing I said Old Fritz used to always say** **, that's a real quote of Frederick the Great. You should google his quotes, the guy's got some good ones.**

 **Oh yeah back story for Gilbird. I think it's cute.**

 **The bison and the fox isn't a real parable as far as I'm aware I just made it up after watching a David Attenborough programme. You should watch him, he's great.**

 **This is such a disjointed author's note it it's like 2 in the morning when I'm writing this so I have an excuse.**

 **I just realise this chapter that Elizaveta's gone to the coffee shop with her friends three out of four chapters. They should get a loyalty card.**

 **And lastly this chapter is a new record for me at TEN pages. Man do you remember when each chapter was like a thousand words and there would be like two each week. Memories of four months ago. Wow has it really been that long. Yay commitment. And there's only two more days left so eight more chapters and epilogue and oneshots but anyway EIGHT chapters left guys.**

 **I should go to sleep, shouldn't I?**


	18. Chapter 17

**FRESHMEN**

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika tried to ignore what was going on downstairs. Her home had fairly thick walls so she shouldn't be able to hear her Mom yelling at Julchen and she couldn't, well she couldn't hear the words. Monika wasn't quite sure of the details of what had happened all she knew was that her Mom had come into to school to talk to the principle then picked up Monika and drove them home, all the while giving Julchen the silent treatment, waiting until they were home before letting it rip. From what Monika had pieced together, Julchen seemed to have punched someone.

Why? Why did Julchen always bring trouble? Monika stared at her books. She had plenty of time to do her homework, the whole weekend in fact. It's not as though she had any plans.

Oh God. Julchen was yelling back. Why did she have to yell back? Mom would run out of steam quickly if she got no reply. But no, Julchen had to respond, had to defend herself, had to be a warrior. Monika sighed. Not every problem was solved by fighting. Sometimes you had to detach yourself from them.

But it was _so hard._ Monika wanted to be detached from school, from The List, from Julchen?

No! No, she couldn't want to detach from her sister. It was _Julchen._ But Julchen was tiring and sometimes Monika wished that Julchen would behave like a _real_ older sister, just talk to Monika, help her with schoolwork, be able to share stuff with her and for _Julchen_ to look after Monika, not the other way round.

Dad's car pulled up outside. Monika trembled. Dad only left the office late, coming home at about half ten at the earliest so if he was home it was because of Julchen. Monika shivered even though it was warm. When Dad was angry it was scary, not like Mom, he didn't yell, he was just very quiet and firm. His voice perfectly flat, concealing the pure rage beneath the surface. But he always looked disappointed. Dad had only been mad at her once and Monika never wanted it to happen again.

Monika stared back at her desk. Her phone vibrated, jerking her out of her thoughts. She reached for the phone. It was a message from Felicity.

 **Ciao Monnie! I didn't get to see you before you went home (btw is true youre sister punched someone?** ) **and I wanted to know if your coming to Homecoming. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease come itll be fun! :D**

Homecoming? There was no way Monika was going to the dance maybe she'd foto the football match but probably not. She'd been a fool to try to convince herself that she could go and not be laughed at.

Manika

There was a particularly loud yell from Julchen, something about protecting Monika's honour. Then there was a silence presumably filled by Dad speaking. Her parents always focused on Julchen, really it made sense considering the sheer amount of times they were called to speak to some authority figure about her. Monika would never forget that time Mom picked Julchen up from the police station. That had been scary. Monika still didn't know what had happened.

There was another ping from her phone. Felicity had sent another message.

 **Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!**

Monika should probably reply to Felicity. But Monika didn't really want to go tomorrow. She typed in a reply.

 **Felicity, I don't think I shall be going to the Homecoming dance. I do not think I will enjoy it. I hope you enjoy yourself with Emily and Lilli.**

And send.

Monika scrolled down through her contacts. Felicity had put her number in Monika's phone, complete with a selfie. Monika never understood how Felicity had her eyes closed in every picture of her, in fact Monika had never seen a picture of Felicity with her eyes open.

Monika kept scrolling all the way down to Onkel Otto. It had been awhile since she'd last talked to her onkel. There was another yell from downstairs. It wasn't too late in Germany. She pressed call. The phone rang. And was picked up.

"Hallo, Das ist Otto Beilschmidt. Kann Ich Ihnen helfen". Monika found it amusing how formal her onkel was, ' _Hello, this is Otto Beilschmidt. What do you want?_ ' In formal German when greeting a family member was undeniably funny.

"Hello, Onkel Otto." Monika responded.

"Ah, Monika." Onkel Otto replied, demeanour warming at the sound of his niece's voice. "It is good to hear from you. How are you?" He asked, switching effortlessly to English.

"I am … not fine." Monika admitted.

"Is there something wrong?" Onkel Otto inquired carefully.

"Er yes." And she told him about The List, Homecoming, Felicity and Julchen, all about Julchen. He didn't press her when she had to stop to compose herself, he just listened without passing judgement even when she had to stop to dry her eyes. It was a relief to just let it all out to someone who could help. "So" she hiccuped "that's been happening."

"Well, that is quite a lot.. I think that you ought to move schools. This clearly isn't a good school." Onkel Otto said after a pause.

"Ja, maybe." German always slipped into Monika's way of talking when having a conversation with her onkel. "But I can't do that now. Not in the middle of a semester."

"Ja, ja. I do understand that and believe me I am going to have words with mein bruder." He said, darkly.

"You don't need to." Protested Monika. It wasn't her Dad's fault, not really anyway.

"Ja, I do need to. He needs to pay attention to you too." Onkel Otto paused. "Monika, in many ways you are stronger than your sister. You are smarter and more mature, these are good things but it has led to your parents and _you_ believing you are strong enough to take on any challenge." His voice softened. "But that's not true. There is one main difference between you and Julchen, when Julchen's upset she acts out, you act in."

Monika nodded slowly. Everyone knew if Julchen was unhappy, it was obvious in the way she acted and spoke but no one could ever tell if Monika was sad.

"But should I be sad? Should I care? The List is superficial so it doesn't matter in anyway and it shouldn't make me sad, right?" Monika said quietly, so quietly she thought Onkel Otto hadn't heard her. This was what she'd been thinking about again and again. Did she have a right to be sad? She had friends, a family, a good life so why should she be sad when people had it worse. She was better than this.

"Monika, everyone can be sad." Onkel Otto consoled. "it's allowed. No one is going to come arrest you for being unhappy in such a situation. This 'List' is cruel and it should be brought to the public's attention if the school is just going to sit back and let it happen. But there is no reason for you to be ashamed of feeling unhappy about such a vile thing. It's bullying that's what it is. Of course you care. Just because something's superficial and you know it's superficial doesn't mean it doesn't hurt or that it shouldn't hurt. It's alright to be sad." Onkel Otto chuckled. "For such a smart person, you can be quite silly sometimes."

Monika laughed quietly and wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall down her face. "What about Julchen?"

Onkel Otto didn't reply immediately as he needed time to organise his thoughts. "Monika" He began. "You need to stop looking after Julchen."

" _What?_ "

"You are forcing yourself to grow up too fast so you can look after your _older_ sister." He stressed the 'older' and let it hang in the conversation for a second before continuing. "You both need to separate. Monika you don't need to worry about what Julchen will do. She's an adult she's old enough to make her own decisions and her own mistakes."

Monika stared at her knees. Let Julchen make her own mistakes. She'd been trying to do just that but it seemed to her that Julchen _had_ made mistakes and was doomed to repeat them. "I know it's hard." Onkel Otto said. "But you need to do it. I had to do the same with my brother."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, even though Fritz was the eldest he was always gallivanting off doing whatever he pleased. I was always worrying about what might happen to him but then I learnt something."

"What?" Monika asked, enthralled by this aspect of her onkel she'd never heard about.

"Fritz had picked a fight with bunch of different people and he won. He was pretty beaten up but he won his fight and I realised that he knew what he was doing. It was stupid but he's learnt for himself how to look after himself and he was his own person. All I could do was offer advice, I couldn't change him or his decisions but I could trust him to make them and learn from them _himself_. A lecture wouldn't work and Fritz and neither will it on your sister." Onkel Otto's voice grew soft when talking about his older brother.

"But she just seems to be getting into to trouble and she won't do anything right." Monika cried, upset at this hands off technique.

"And Fritz only got his head screwed on straight in his twenties. It takes time to grow out of it but he did and she will but she has to do it at her own pace by herself."

The yelling downstairs had stopped. Julchen was probably sulking in her room now. "Monika, you need to live your own life." Onkel Otto said in a commanding tone. "And you won't be able if you keep looking after Julchen."

Monika didn't respond and Onkel Otto didn't continue to speak. Monika's world didn't exactly revolve around Julchen, she was just a key part of her life. But she was a large key part that didn't allow for much room for others. Was this wrong? Shouldn't she be loyal to her family first and foremost? But loyalty went both ways and while Monika would never doubt Julchen's loyalty to her, Julchen's attention was spotty at best. So was it fair for Monika to devote so much time to her sister when there were other people she should be giving some of that time to?

Felicity sprung to mind. Felicity was more loyal than Monika had thought. She hoped she'd enjoy Homecoming.

"I think I understand" said Monika, uncertainly.

..

FELICITY VARGAS

Felicity stared mournfully at Monika's reply.

 **Felicity, I don't think I shall be going to the Homecoming dance. I do not think I will enjoy it. I hope you enjoy yourself with Emily and Lilli.**

She wouldn't enjoy herself, not without Monika there. Was it selfish to want her friend to come even if she said she wouldn't? Yes it would be.

But before The List, Felicity had been certain that Monika had wanted to come but now… it was because of The List. It had to be. Sure, Monika hadn't exactly been bouncing around in excitement at the prospect of the dance but Monika had been interested in going even if she found it silly. She'd _said_ so.

 _The four of them were standing at Felicity's locker while she took the books she needed from her locker. It was a long process because she always forgot what classes she had next. Lillie was showing all of them a poster for the Homecoming dance. Emily seemed mostly unimpressed while Monika kept looking at the poster._

 _Lilli smoothed out the page. "I would like to go, it might be fun but I don't think bruder will want me too."_

" _Veh, can't you convince him?" Felicity begged. Out of all of her friends Lilli was the most likely to go to a dance and Felicity didn't have high hopes for either Emily or Monika expressing a desire to go and Felicity couldn't stand the idea of going to her first dance by herself. "I don't want to go on my own."_

" _I'll go."_

 _Everyone turned to Monika, her face was red and she looked surprised at how loudly she blurted that out._

" _I mean, it'll be fun. I suppose." She was blushing. "But it's just because it's the first dance, not to dress up like most of the girls here. I swear most of them wouldn't know a textbook if you hit them with it. And I think it's stupid that all they care about is their looks and not anything important and when they graduate they'll end up unemployed because they don't have a brain."_

 _Emily gave Felicity a look that clearly conveyed 'The fuck?' and Lilli glanced around nervously at the other girls standing nearby, most noticeably a senior with poorly dyed brown hair was watching them intently, listening to their conversation while eating a stack of waffles. Felicity was more direct. "What are you talking about, Monnie?"_

 _Monika blushed and stared at her feet. "I think the dance will be fun." She almost looked guilty for saying so._

 _Emily leaned in to Felicity and muttered "Her sister is very vocal about her distaste for dances."_

 _Felicity glanced at the pale girl. "Veh, how do you know?"_

 _Emily rolled her eyes. "Like I said,_ very _vocal."_

 _Felicity nodded, pretending to understand. Monika coughed awkwardly into her hand. "I will go to the Homecoming dance even if it's superficial and stupid."_

 _Felicity beamed at Monika who blushed. "It'll be fun."_

She'd said she wanted to go. Maybe not as clearly as that but the intent had been there. Felicity sighed. Would Monika enjoy the dance if she went? She would've if The List hadn't happened but now…

Now Felicity just didn't know.

She started opening her notebook to doodle in and two pages fell out. Felicity bent down to pick them up and saw what they were; The List and the ad for suits that had been left in Monika's locker. Picking them up, she stared at them.

Otherwise known as Manika

What was wrong with being manly? Her Grandpa was a man and people often described him as pretty as well as manly. What fault was there in being strong? Or was it just looking like a man not anything associated with it? If the issue was looking like man…

Felicity had an idea!

She rushed down the stairs, taking them so fast her feet barely touched the ground and she hurtled into the restaurant.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!" Several customers looked up in surprise and that this ball of speed that had just suddenly appeared. "Grandpa!"

Eventually her Grandpa came out from the kitchen looking rather bemused, Lovina appeared behind him. "Grandpa I need money for shopping." There was a round of laughter at the request.

Grandpa Roma chuckled and cocked his head to one side. "What do you want to buy?"

"It's for Homecoming-" "-you've already got your dress" Lovina interrupted.

"It's for my friend."

"Why are you buying someone else's dress?"

"Because, Lovi-"

"I _said_ not to call me that."

"But _why?_ You can call me Feli."

"I'm not going to call you Feli!"

"Why not?"

"Because it sounds like 'Feeley' like you feel people."

"No it doesn't. Monika calls me that."

"Well she's a potato bitch."

"Alright, alright ragazze I've heard enough." Grandpa Roma stopped their bickering, raising a hand to silence them. "Felicity, you have my blessing and my money." He handed the puzzled girl his wallet.

Felicity took it eagerly and rushed out, leaving Lovina to give their Grandpa a look as he sighed blissfully. "Ah, young love."

"You know her friend's a girl?"

…

It was later. The shopping bags lay on her bed. Felicity was very pleased with her shopping, there was just one thing left to do. She walked down to the apartment kitchen. Lovina was at the table doing her homework. "What are you doing?" Lovina asked her and Felicity began looking through the drawers. "I'm looking for- oh here it is!" Felicity help up the scissors in triumph and Lovina rolled her eyes, having stopped questioning Felicity many years ago.

Felicity went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She stared into the mirror and pulled the hair tie out. Her hair fell around her face in an auburn curtain, past her shoulders, to rest at her shoulder blades. She touched a strand wistfully.

Felicity reached for the scissors.

…

 **Dun dun. *** **dramatic music** *****

 **So who did Julchen punch? What did Felicity do? Will there be any more adult conversations? Spoilers, spoilers and no. But more importantly will I update more than once a month?**

 **MAAAAAYBE!**


	19. Chapter 18

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

When Felka needed cheering up there was only one place to go. The mall. More specifically the toy shop. Why? Because there was a pony section. It was almost a part of girl law that every girl goes through a pony faze and for Felka it would be more accurate to say she'd hit the phase rather late in her life but was making up for lost time. So now everything ponies Felka instantly latched onto. She was very fond of the pony show, especially the gay one. Oh sure they'd never shown her love for her friend but it was there.

Felka squealed happily at the sight of a life-sized pony toy. She sped over to it and began petting its brown nose. The fake fur was _so_ soft and it's dark eyes stared at her imploringly, crying to her 'buy me! buy me! buy me!' Maybe she could convince her Dads to get her it for her birthday. It wouldn't be her birthday for ages though. Last year, Toris had gotten her a notebook with a pony on the cover. On the inside cover he'd written a message to her in Lithuanian. Felka didn't speak Lithuanian, after all Polish was so much better and she'd always liked the idea of having this little piece of Toris she didn't yet know.

Turned out there was plenty of Toris she didn't know.

Felka stared into the pony's glass eyes and say her reflection, a blur of golden hair and pink face. She didn't regret her decision. Felka would stand up for what she had done as right. If Toris didn't love her then it wasn't fair. But it still hurt.

Felka moved away from the life-sized pony. She'd come back to it at some later point but not it was time to look at all the small toy ponies, the plastic ones with long, colourful manes and butt stickers. Her bag was pretty heavy. The teachers decided to give plenty of homework but really Felka didn't care about it.

What was she going to do tomorrow? Felka already owned a ticket for the dance and it would be a waste to not go, Hedvika was going and it would be great to see Elizaveta crowned Homecoming queen. But Toris. And Natalia. And every student waiting there, waiting to see her reaction, to see Felka shatter right in front of them. Felka was not someone who broke easily.

Phoenix.

That was what her Tata had said to her once. She'd been upset. The other girls hadn't wanted to play with her. Her Tata had sat her down and talked to her about how when he was young the other boys didn't like him because he would wear skirts sometimes and liked girl things. Felka remembered that she then asked if he just moved on. He'd said that she'd got the idea a lot faster than he had as a child and that Felka was a little phoenix, able to bounce back from everything and rise above her troubles. Well, now was the first time she'd have to really put that philosophy into use.

But Felka would be fine. She was certain of that.

Looking back at her early childhood, Felka had been quite an unsociable child. She hadn't gone and made friends herself, feeling scared of the other kids. She'd often hide behind either of her Dads. It had gotten fairly out of hand. Her Tata and her Dad used to argue about pushing her into social situations. Her Dad had wanted her to interact more with kids so she'd be more comfortable with them by the time school started. Her Tata had been more inclined to let her develop at her own pace, saying that he was the same as a child. Ultimately her Dad won and she'd been introduced to Toris.

" _I don't wanna!" Wailed Felka, trying to run behind a chair in the belief that the chair would make a better friend than any child that her Dad wanted her to meet._

" _Felka, you need to come out."_

" _It'll be fun."_

" _No!" Felka whined. She clutched the chair as though it was her new parent. She felt arms wrap around her waist and pick her off the floor. Felka looked up into her Dad's face. "Felka. Toris is a very nice boy and I'm sure you'll get along famously."_

" _I'm scared. He'll, like, be mean." She whimpered._

" _Oh Felka, sweetie. Don't worry." Her Tata came over and gently put his arm around her. "It will, like, be fine." He glanced at his husband. "Do you, like, think this is a good idea?"_

 _Her Dad nodded. "Yes. Now come on Felka. It'll fun. I promise."_

 _Felka stared at him. "You promise?" She asked as suspiciously as a four year old can._

" _I promise." Her Dad gently squeezed her hand._

" _Okay. I'll, like, play with Torith."_

" _Toris, sweetie. His name is Toris."_

" _Toris." Felka said, trying out the new name._

 _The doorbell rang. Her Dad went to open it and her Tata smiled at Felka one last time before Toris and his family would come in. "You'll, like, be fine." Felka nodded slowly to herself._

 _Her Dad and two other adults came into the sitting room, chatting amicably and a small boy trotted in beside them. He had a rather long, pale face with tufty brown hair forming a ring around it. He walked over to her, slowly and stuck out his hand. "Hello. I'm Toris."_

 _Felka flipped her out of her eyes as she'd seen her Tata do. "I, like, know. I'm Felka."_

" _Oh, um, I knew that too." Toris looked so upset as though he had wanted his name to be a big revelation. Felka giggled. This boy was silly but she liked him._

…

 _Felka quite liked Toris' house. She'd beg her Dads to go to Toris' house instead of having him at her house. There was something inherently more fun being someone else's house when having a play-date. Besides that fact, he had a a big grassy area out the back and it was so much fun to run around. Toris' mother brought them cookies and juice while the two of them played outside._

" _Toris. Like, tell me something interesting." Felka demanded rolling around on the grass._

 _Toris' head perked up at her demand. He stared at her then after thinking hard, his face broke into a small smile. "My mumija told me a story." Felka rolled over onto her stomach and stared at him. Toris continued, his voice a mixture of nerves and excitement. "There was a king and he had a dream of a wolf. A really,_ really _wolf. Made of metal. And there were all these other wolves too. Oh and the wolf was on a cliff."_

" _What happened then?" Felka interrupted._

" _The king woke up." Toris explained. "And his friend told him the dream meant he was destined to build a castle on the cliff and rule a big kingdom."_

" _And so does the king, like, go out and fight monsters and save a princess? Oh does he make his castle?" Felka bombarded the other child._

" _I don't know. Mumija said the castle became a city and the city is in a country but I don't really remember anything else." Toris mumbled, embarrassed that the story didn't have a better ending._

"Lame! _" Felka sat up and crossed her arms. "That's, like, a stupid story."_

" _It is not." Toris defended his mumija's story._

" _It_ so _is._

" _It's not"_

" _Is too."_

" _It's not."_

" _Is too."_

" _Alright, you need to play nice." Toris' mother came over and separated them as Felka had hit Toris on the last 'Is too' and Toris has been about to respond in a similar way._

" _Toris started it with his stupid story."_

" _My story was good!"_

 _Toris' mother pinched the bridge of her nose and uttered the external reply to 'he started it' "I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it."_

" _Sorry, Mumija. I didn't want to upset you." Toris said raising an arm to try to comfort her. Felka watched the two of them._

" _Toris, I'm, like, sorry." Felka said, extending a hand as sign of apology._

 _Toris stared at her hand and after a moment of indecision, shook her hand. "I'm sorry you didn't like my story."_

 _Felka sniffed. "I have a better story."_

…

 _Felka wasn't really sure about this game Toris was eagerly setting up. Chess sounded way too complicated. Why not make the smaller pieces balance on the bigger ones. Two of them where practically designed for it, with big flat tops that made the whole piece look like a tower. And there were horses. Felka made her horses prance around the castle made of the two towers. The horses were the princess' horses and she rode them everyday._

" _-so do you understand?" Toris asked her, expectingly._

" _Like, yeah. I need to take your king which is, like, stupid. Why don't I, like, take your queen?"_

" _You can." Toris reassured her. "So do you want to play?"_

" _Like, sure I guess." Felka mumbled the last part of her sentence so Toris wouldn't hear. He clearly really wanted to play this game._

 _Ten minutes later Felka was regretting her decision. She knew enough about the rules to tell she was loosing. Toris grinned up at her. "Look your knight has no where to run. I've caught it." He said playfully._

 _Felka flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Well, I, like, activate the Polish rule."_

" _The what?"_

" _The Polish rule. Once a polish person activates it, they can do whatever they like." She declared this with the same time other people would reserve for saying 'I won the Nobel Peace prize' or 'I just ended world hunger.' She said this as she frantically moved pieces across the board in arbitrary motions. Toris just sat back and watched as his friend destroyed the complex game in a similar method to a puppy. "And so, like, you can see I win."_

…

" _Toris."_

 _Toris looked up from the book to see a golden blur crash into him. Felka beamed down her friend and proudly held up a flower crown. "Elizaveta, like, showed me how to make them." Elizaveta showed Felka so many cool things. She knew stuff. Probably because she was old. She was so old she was in middle school and to Felka that seemed forever away._

" _Flower crowns?" Toris asked in confusion, not seeing what was so revolutionary about them._

" _Yeah. I, like, wanted you to wear one so we'd be matching." Felka gestured to her head where a pink flower crown sat. "Please."_

 _Toris reluctantly put the flower crown on his head and Felka beamed. "You look really pretty."_

 _He blushed. "So do you."_

…

"Are you going to buy anything, miss?" The employee's voice violently dragged Felka out of her recollections. She turned to face the rather animated Asian man.

"Erm, no. I just, like, looking at the ponies." Felka explained, gesturing at them.

The man nodded. "Ponies are great. Ponies originated in Korea." He exclaimed in excitement.

Felka raised an eyebrow. "I, like, don't think so."

The man shrugged. "All good things originated in Korea."

Okay, he was a few cards short of a full deck it appeared. Felka carefully extracted herself from the conversation and hurried out of the toy shop. That guy had been pretty weird.

Felka opened her bag and rummaged through it. She'd left her purse in it and she couldn't remember if she had enough money to maybe buy herself a comfort pony. She realised she was holding a notebook. A very familiar notebook. Felka had used this notebook as a combination of a diary and random ideas journal. It was full of doodles, quotes, inventions and personal anecdotes. But there was one note on the inside cover that she had not written. She pulled out the notebook and stared at it then opened it and stared at the message. A little bit of Toris left to her. Now seemed the perfect time.

Google translate was imperfect but it would get across the message well enough.

 _ **Dear Felka**_

Well she'd guessed that much.

 _ **I want to thank you for being you. You are wonderful and different and beautiful. I am so happy we met. You've changed my life for good. I love you Felka. Never change.**_

 _ **~Toris**_

Felka wasn't crying but she could feel something inside her breaking.

"I love you too." She whispered.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

Amelia had been acting pretty weirdly today. In fact everyone had. Madeline had been leaving home earlier than Amelia since the fight and today she'd decided to put on make up in accordance to how the girls had been telling her. It wasn't as though Madeline never wore make up, she just never really bothered with it. She'd put on some stuff on her eyes for fun and put on some concealer and foundation for events but she never really did a full face. Madeline hadn't been too sure as to how she looked when she was done but she'd followed what the girls in school said. She'd felt quite proud of herself for making the leap.

The girls had looked quite stunned but were really supportive so Madeline must have done it right. Alice had given her a doubtful glance but Alice's chosen look involved an abundance of eye liner and the overall application of the colour black so Madeline took her opinion with a grain of salt. Francine had seen her in between classes and had looked like she'd wanted to talk but then Madeline had to go to Chemistry and she hadn't seen Francine the rest of the day. When Amelia saw Madeleine her face exploded into a variety of expressions.

Amelia looked like she was making a difficult decision before grabbing Madeline's arm and dragging her into the nearest bathroom. "Hey, Amelia. Stop. Let go of me." Her protests fell on deaf ears and Amelia successfully deposited her by the sinks. Amelia ran a hand through her hair as she stared at Madeline. "Okay, sis, I am doing you a favour when I say take that off." She opened her bag, rummaged around and pulled out make up wipes.

Madeline looked at the wipes then in the mirror. Her face did look odd. But they said to use bronzer and her eyebrows still weren't as large as Alice's.

"I know things have been weird between us but" Amelia began still holding out the make up wipes. "As one fellow girl to another I cannot allow the abomination on your face to continue another minute longer."

Amelia, blunt as ever. Madeline took the make up wipe, took off her glasses and slowly began removing the stuff from her face. When she looked up again, Amelia was gone, leaving behind nothing except the wipes. Her twin could be surprisingly stealthy.

When Madeline returned to class, Chocolate Curls made a note of Madeline's freshly cleaned face. "It looks nicer this way." There was a general murmur of agreement.

It hurt more than it should've. It was only make up but it felt as though Madeline had failed some key test of being a girl, as though she couldn't function without help and Madeline dreaded to think what everyone had been thinking of her when she'd been going around wearing that.

But it was silly, after all it was only make up. And of all people Madeline should know she was pretty after all she was one of the coveted prettiest four. Well if just this was Madeline's taste with being on the other side of things, she was more than happy to foreswear make up if it meant staying out of ugly territory.

Perhaps that line of thinking was wrong but she was scared of people thinking she was ugly. She wasn't even getting retribution from it and she felt awful which was stupid because everyone was being nice. Strange how 'niceness' can be the action for so many different underlying thoughts.

A girl made the suggestion of someone else doing Madeline's make up for tomorrow. Tomorrow. Madeline was excited for tomorrow. She had a dress she'd wanted to try out for awhile. Jett's party before the dance would be fun. There would be alcohol and general excitement and then at the dance everyone would be on a high. She'd be flying high and everyone would be looking at her. Madeline was fairly sure that was what she wanted.

Her parents would not approve but they wouldn't notice. They didn't notice that time Amelia came home drunk or that time Madeline went on an evening dates with the Cuban guy who worked in the ice cream shop part-time.

Carlos was nice. Madeline had liked him. He still gave her free ice creams. He really hated Amelia though. Madeline had been going to that ice cream shop for several years when Carlos started working there. He was only two years older than her so he wasn't a 'creepy pedo-commie-bastard' as Amelia claimed. Madeline privately thought that Amelia was just jealous that Madeline was the first one to get a boyfriend and she got free ice cream while Carlos gave Amelia deliberately bad service. Amelia had never exactly been the master of relationships. Of _any_ kind really.

When they'd been younger Amelia would tell Madeline about every crush she had. Madeline remembered clearly Amelia's first 'date'. They were barely in middle school and the boy was loud, obnoxious and far too similar to her. Madeline wondered what happened to Mathias. He was in the grade above them but neither Madeline nor Amelia had really kept in contact with him.

And now the boy that Amelia was spending most of her time with and constantly talking about was Kiku Honda, the quiet Japanese boy who was still learning English and liked video games and cartoons. Quite different from Mathias. Madeline wondered what that said about Amelia as a person. Maybe, that she was growing up.

..

 **Carlos: Cuba**

 **Christ the imbalance in length between Felka and Madeline. It's clear which I find easier to write. So not much really happened but cute background stuff for the win? And I kinda ship Canada and Cuba. Look at the manga and they are adorable. Like my god. That time they're taking selfies? It's so cute. Infinitely better than other Canada ships. (Except for NedCan, that's also super cute)**

 **And lastly, justification for the lateness I have three excuses.**

 **I have discovered TV Tropes. Send help. I have dived down the rabbit hole.**

 **I have been sick. Nothing particularly serious but I was bed ridden and I was not being productive.**

 **It was birthday! So I was celebrating. Hurray for getting tea cups. I now have three. It was a good day.**

 **Anyhow my favourite people to write are Alice and Francine so expect the next chapter soon.**


	20. Chapter 19

**JUNIORS**

ALICE KIRKLAND

Alice didn't like Fridays. It was the first day where she had to interact with what was left of her family because on Friday Alice had to collect Peter from football practice. On a normal day Peter walked with Paula to her house, had a snack, did his homework then Paula's mother or one of her brother, probably Jett, dropped Peter back to the flat. Unfortunately Paula didn't do football so someone had to pick him up and walk him home. This someone being Alice because Erin worked evenings on Fridays and because Peter's football practice only ended about half an hour after Mount H.E.T.A. High. That still meant that Alice had to hang around for at least fifteen minutes even if she walked really slowly.

Alice blew out smoke and watched the gas hang in the air before being whipped away by the wind. There were some freshmen hovering nearby, giving her scared looks. Alice found it amusing, she was wearing a tank top, her tattoo on full display. She had all her piercings in and at least twelve necklaces were strung around her neck.

Alice supposed she looked intimidating but freshmen were easy to scare. Alice had always been able to scare other people, as a young child she'd talk about magic and ghosts, the other little boys and girls would always run off crying when she told them about the Unseelie Court, in middle school she intimidated the other students with her sheer knowledge on almost everything fiction, now she was a punk, rebel, emo, whatever she was being called these days. Alice had never really kept track of the names she'd been called. Well, her phone kept track.

Alice wasn't quite sure the first time got a message telling her she was a freak, a dyke, a bitch but then they just kept piling up. They stopped when her Mum died, no one wanted to bully the orphan. Why did she get them? Alice wasn't sure, she suspected it was because people didn't like her and it was easier to be honest with someone when you can't see them. That was why she'd sent Francine a very well-written letter in Grade 9.

Francine had been her, God she hated acknowledging this even in her head, friend in middle school. Most people thought they hated each other but that was just how their friendship was, bickering. Then came high school and Francine dumped Alice to be with the populars. Alice had been hurt by that, more than she'd like to admit but she was past it now. Writing a letter that points out exactly why someone sucks is very cathartic and then leaving them in for said person to find just made the experience even better. Francine had received several of these reasons-you-suck letters.

Alice's mind jumped from Francine in the past to Francine in the present, it had been so funny when Julchen-

"I still think you should go!" Vladimir's rather loud voice jerked Alice out of her thoughts. Vladimir and Luka were walking towards Alice. Vladimir looked vaguely annoyed and Luka was glaring at him.

"I don't want to go, so why should I?" Luka muttered as she threw herself onto the bench. Alice raised an eyebrow, they weren't still continuing this argument from lunch were they?

"Even your sister is going!" Yes, apparently they were. "And if my boyfriend asked me to a dance I would say yes even if it was in Bulgaria."

"Mathias is _not_ my boyfriend." Luka denied.

"He really is." Alice pointed out. "He gets you gifts, walks with you, takes you out for food, he's your boyfriend."

Luka glared at Alice and Vladimir giggled. "Even the Witch believes me and if Mad Alice thinks something is obvious then you know it must be really obvious."

"Butter doesn't count as a gift." Luka muttered.

"You asked for it!" Vladimir and Alice said at the same time.

Luka glared again and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Vladimir began speaking about how much he wished he could take his boyfriend to Homecoming and how Luka was so lucky. Alice rolled her eyes again and watched her smoke. Vladimir and Luka had been arguing ever since Mathias asked Luka to Homecoming. Vladimir had bought his ticket as soon they started selling them, Vladimir loved school dances as he always went dressed up as a vampire and tried to freak out people, while Luka was adamant that she wasn't going. Alice didn't want to go, maybe she'd write or have drink or something. But Luka should go, Mathias was a nice guy and she could be happy with him.

Alice cleared her throat and her friends turned to look at her, surprised that she was entering into an argument she'd been determinably neutral on. "Luka, you should go. Who knows when else you'll get this opportunity."

Luka grumbled in submission and Vladimir nodded in thanks then grinned and said "So Alice, are you coming to Homecoming?"

…

Alice leant back against the radiator. It was cold, September was too early to start the heating. She stared directly in front of her, not really seeing the class photos, just lost in thought. Vladimir had diverted all his attention onto Alice to try to get her to come to Homecoming. The worst part was that Luka joined in as revenge for Alice backing Vladimir, the only difference was that Alice didn't have a boy asking her to come and even if there was one, she really wouldn't be interested. That was something people never seemed to get, Alice didn't like guys, she didn't like people, that was just how it was.

But Homecoming wasn't the only thing tomorrow. No, tomorrow Alice would be getting the letter than inevitably said her story wasn't going through. Oh sure Ms. Victoria said she had the ability to represent the state but Alice wasn't really hopeful. Some people said that people should be optimistic but pessimism had its good points. If you expect the worst things can't be disappointing.

A woman walked into the entrance hall, jabbering on her phone. She was probably someone's mother, come to pick them up. The woman gave Alice a suspicious look to which Alice resisted the urge to flip her off and merely gave her a withering look that could make a child cry. The woman sniffed and said loudly into her phone "Oh there's a _delinquent_ in the school. She has a _nose piercing_ and the gall to wear it were there are young children- yes she's in the hall with me, why is that an issue?"

This was the point that Alice sloped off in search of _anywhere_ else. The halls were empty and the classroom locked but Alice felt as though she was back in middle school. It was a curious mix of anger and nostalgia, things had just been simpler then even her issues.

The corridors on the ground floor all had old class photos. She stopped at the 2010 class photo. There she was, blonde hair in pigtails, bright red glasses, a green jumper and a perfectly pressed skirt _,_ eleven year old Alice had been neat although she looked like a total dork. Alice shuddered as she remembered the navy dress she used to wear, it had been modelled after a WW2 nurse dress and young-Alice had loved it even though she looked ridiculous in it.

And there, right beside young-Alice was young-Francine. Chocolate coloured hair that tumbled down her back, bright blue eyes and pink lip gloss. Francine had been new, she'd just moved to the area and she was _fancy._ She'd moved from New York, she'd lived in London _and_ Paris, her father was the head of an important fashion company and she was rich. Francine had been exotic in middle school and it had been a surprise to both Alice and Francine that they became friends. Alice stared at Francine's smiling face. Was it really surprise that it didn't last?

Alice kept walking down the corridor, looking at the other pictures. There was a younger Julchen, a big grin lit up her eyes. Julchen's eyes had looked very dead when she smiled recently. Since before May but that was when Alice really noticed it. Julchen had approached her in early May to ask about Angelique and Francine. Alice had been defensive but once she learnt of Julchen's plan happily told everything she knew about Angelique Mancham. It had been trickier with Francine as Julchen knew Francine almost as well as Alice did, the key word there being almost. Julchen hadn't known about Francine's love of her mirror and that information had been valuable.

Alice kept walking along past the picture of Julchen and her class. The sun shone right through a window and into her eye. The light shone off the lockers. Alice paused outside her old home room and stared inside. It was just the same as it had always been. It felt weird to see things just the same when Alice was so different.

Wow Alice had gotten far down the corridor if she was at Erin's class photo. Alice couldn't help but stare. It was before her hair was cut and it was in long plaits but it was shocking how little Erin's face had changed physically difference, same snub nose, freckles, choppy fringe. It was weird to see Erin as a kid again. They didn't really keep any photos from their childhood. Alice just kept looking at Erin. She looked so innocent and, well, young. Erin now always looked tired. She supposed that Erin did have to work a job and look after Peter. It probably wasn't easy. Alice felt something akin to pity for her sister.

Peter!

What time was it?

Alice whirled around. How had she let time run away from her? She rushed back down towards to the entrance hall.

The woman glared at Alice as she burst in through the doors. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Alice, the kids had come in from football practice so she couldn't swear. Peter was in the centre of a group of boys although chatting happily. Alice felt a pang, why was it that both her siblings were better at getting people to like them than her.

"Peter, it's time to go." Alice snapped. Peter jerked his attention to his older sister and murmured a hasty goodbye to his friends before turning to follow Alice out of the building.

They set off home together.

..

FRANCINE BONNEFOY

Francine pressed the icepack into her cheek. It was still sore. Nothing had been broken, none of her teeth had been knocked out and Julchen had probably done more damage to her fist than to Francine's face but it still _hurt_. Even though she had been punched several hours ago, a dull throbbing permeated her cheek and her whole face was hot.

Julchen had been so mad before she hit Francine she'd yelled plenty of things most of which were thankfully incoherent. It was good that she'd been so mad that she couldn't string together an comprehensible story because from the little Francine understood, she knew that Julchen knew. But how had she found out?

Francine had been careful. No one was allowed look in her folder, she'd kept everything else at home to make sure that no one could read her plans. But Julchen was no stranger to breaking into people's houses. Could that have been it? Had Julchen broken into her house and found her practices, her notes, her Lists? No she couldn't have because she was livid today so she had to have found out today or after school yesterday and her Papa had been staying at home since he'd come back. So how did Julchen know?

Or did she? It might have been an assumption, Julchen could have heard a rumour and assumed it to be the truth. It was a possibility as Julchen could be very passionate and jump to wild conclusions but she was also very thorough and wouldn't believe just anything.

Francine took the icepack of her face and gingerly touched it. It burned. Her face was starting to bruise. Francine wasn't sure what she was going to do for Homecoming.

When Julchen had been spluttering before she struck, she'd mentioned several people; Toni, Monika and Luka. Luka was concerning because Luka knew _everything_. Francine didn't know how she did it. So, the question was, did Luka know that Francine was the author and had she revealed that fact to Julchen?

Francine felt uneasy. The List was all very well when the author was an unknown entity but with it known, the whole thing would fall apart. People loved to read The List and judge who

was on it but anyone who actually made The List was seen as cruel. It was a level of hypocrisy Francine would never understand.

Francine's phone suddenly started ringing. Francine, one handed, awkwardly took out the vibrating phone and saw that Angelique was phoning. Odd. Typically Angelique preferred Facebook Messenger or, if she needed to use her phone, texting. So why was she phoning?

"Bonjour, Angelique." Francine greeted.

The response she received wasn't coherent, it was the sound of Angelique crying.

"Angelique! What's wrong?" Francine clutched the phone to her ear. Angelique was like the little sister Francine had always wanted and if she was upset someone was going to have to answer to big sister Francine.

"Fran… Fran" Angelique sobbed.

"Ange, please talk to me. What's wrong? Let me help." Francine asked desperate for answer, desperate to understand what was wrong so she could help.

"My…. My parents they- they… it's not fair! Now they think you're… and I don't want to! Fran." Angelique wailed. It was clear she wanted Francine to magically make the problem disappear but Francine didn't know what to do.

"What did your parents do?"

"They-They found The List … and-and-and they think you're b-bullying the other girls…. And now… and now they… they …want to…. They want…." Angelique could barely get the words out through all the crying.

Francine shrugged of the comment that she was bullying the other girls. It was concerning because Angelique's parents had a very firm stance with regards to bullying and would not let them be friends if they thought Francine was a bad influence. "What do they want to do? Angelique, please tell me."

Angelique took a deep shuddering breath. "They want me to move schools."

Angelique moving schools. Who would Francine talk to, who would she complain about homework with, who would she have lunch with, who would be her best friend? There was no one else. Francine was alone.

But if she moved school they could meet up during the weekend and after school. And there was still the rest of this year. Most schools wouldn't just let you transfer in the middle of a semester for no particular reason.

But then what about next year? When Francine will be a senior and Toni is off in college in Spain. How was it she was happiest and with the most friends last year as a sophomore. Then Julchen shattered that happiness by destroying their trio.

Or had that been Francine?

"Listen, Angelique, it'll be okay. We can still see each other outside of school. It's not as though you're moving to another country." There was a deadly silence after Francine made that comment. "You're not. You can't be. Are you?"

Angelique continued to cry. "My Mum got a job offer in …. Florida. And … And my Dad says there's more work and-and-and there's better s-schools. And _I don't wanna go!_ "

Francine felt so helpless. What was she supposed to say to help?

"I'm sure it will be alright. I'm sure they won't actually move…" Francine trailed off. She didn't know what Angelique's parents would do.

On Angelique's end there was a lot of yelling and Francine recognised Angelique's mother, Michelle. She seemed to be yelling at Angelique to get off her phone. There was a click.

Angelique couldn't move. She couldn't.

And all because of The List.

Francine walked quickly over to her desk, skirt swishing behind her as she moved and opened the third drawer and removed the stamp from its protective box.

It had been pure luck that she'd found it come across it at the end of last year but that meant it should be harder to trace it back to her. No one knew she had it but had she shown her hand some other way?

 _Francine was angry. Who could blame her? Her room smelt of fish, her mirror had been ruined and her best friend had been attacked. Oh sure, Julchen probably thought it was hilarious to shave off one of Angelique's eyebrows but she was so upset. Francine didn't know what to do to help her. She was being supportive of course and helping Angelique cover up everything going on in school from her parents. Angelique's parents took a very firm stance on bullying and would certainly disapprove of The List and Julchen's little revenge spree could've caused Angelique's parents to learn about all the things happening under their nose. Julchen knew this and she still went after Angelique. So yes, Francine was angry._

 _Technically, no one knew for sure it was Julchen, there was no hard evidence (if there was Roderich's parents would probably press charges), Julchen even had an alibi but everyone knew who had gone a nighttime revenge spree._

 _Francine closed her locker and began walking to the nearest bathroom. The corridors were very empty, most people had class and those that didn't were enjoying the sunshine. That was why it was odd to hear voices, voices that were arguing. Francine was quite fond of gossip and so she had to at least see who were arguing._

 _Francine peered around the corner to see two seniors, she recognised them as Mei Wang and Viet Ling. Mei was quite popular for being a sweet, pretty girl who everyone liked while Viet used to be known as one of the most sporty girls in the school and for probably being future valedictorian now she was known for being the ugliest senior. Mei was clutching something and was crying, her eyes puffy and red, her nose running and tears falling into her mouth. Viet looked livid._

" _I-I .. I'm so sorry! I am r-really I am!" Gasped Mei. Viet didn't move a muscle, she just continued to glare at Mei. "I-I know that.. that_ nothing _I say can make up for- for what I d-did but please.. Viet.. please, I'm sorry."_

 _Viet just continued to look Mei right in the eye. "It was just- it was just that you.. everyone- our family- they all- they all… talk about you like.. like you're wonderful and smart and sporty and.. and no one ever says anything like that to- to me….. I was just jealous.'' Mei whispered that last part, like it was something she didn't want even the lockers hearing. "I know you're my cousin but- but I really…. It was a mistake… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

 _Viet finally sighed and spoke quietly. "So you were jealous? That's why? You destroyed my social life, killed other girls' self esteem, deliberately attacked Chun-Yan and continued a demoralising tradition because you were jealous I could play tennis?"_

 _Mei gulped and looked at her cousin and nodded mutely._

" _That's pathetic, Mei. I hope you know exactly how pathetic it is because I can't express that." The Artic was probably warmer than Viet's voice._

" _I do know." Wailed Mei. "And I'm sorry. Please forgive me."_

 _Viet stared her down. "I don't know if I can, Mei and even if I could you shouldn't be apologising to me, you should be apologising to your sister. Chun-Yan's gone through enough without this" Viet paused as she searched for a word to express her contempt for The List. " demoralising piece of crap attacking him."_

" _Her." Mei interject._

" _Her." Viet agreed. "And that's exactly my point._ She _is your sister and you called her a 'middle aged woman'. Tell me why?" Mei just continued to cry. "Were you jealous of her too? Or do you think that this kind of thing is helping? Well, do you?" Viet snarled. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"_

 _Mei stared at Viet puffy eyed and Francine leaned in to try to hear what was coming next. "I'm so sorry"_

 _Viet paused and then turned to begin walking away, her shoes ringing out in the silence of the school. "That's not enough, Mei."_

 _Viet had just left Francine's field of vision when Mei called out "Wait!"_

 _Viet's footsteps stopped._

" _Let me show you…. let me show you how sorry I am! Just tell me what to do!" Mei begged Viet's back. Francine couldn't help but lean in further, this was like a soap opera and Francine didn't want to miss a second of it._

 _Viet suddenly turned around and strode towards Mei. "The stamp. You have it?" Mei nodded and help up the thing in her hands. Francine gawked at it, that was the mythical stamp, the thing spoken of in legends and it was_ right there!

 _Viet then pointed to the nearby trash can. "Put it in there."_

" _What?"_

" _You heard me. Put that piece of garbage where it belongs." Mei looked down at the stamp then back up at her cousin. The internal debate was as clear as if her face was a window to her thoughts. Then she turned and walked slowly over to the trash can all while Viet and Francine watched raptly. Mei took a deep breath, held the stamp up and slammed in down into the trash can. It made a loud bang that echoed through the whole school._

 _Mei stared down at the trash can then turned to Viet. "No more Lists now." She ran forwards as though expecting a hug but Viet had already begun walking away. "Viet?"_

 _Viet kept walking._

" _Viet!"_

 _Viet left. Mei kept staring at where the other girl had been. "Viet? Please? I'm so sorry." Mei looked heartbroken as though something internal that had been holding her together had just snapped. She wasn't crying anymore and yet she looked more broken than ever before. Mei glanced back at the trashcan before running away into a nearby bathroom._

 _Once Francine was certain Mei wasn't going to come bursting out of the bathroom to reclaim the stamp, she quietly hurried over to the trashcan and, after a bit of rummaging, pulled out the stamp._

 _Now Julchen would know what it was like to be attacked._

 ***slowly emerges from bunker** *** hi**

 ***ducks behind rock** *** sorry**

 **What can I say, I had a friend over for a few weeks and she'd never been abroad before so I was kinda busy and then I was stuck in the middle of fecking nowhere with no wifi or signal only BOG. So much bog. It got** _ **everywhere**_ **and I mean** _ **everywhere**_ **. Anyway this time I'm not going to make any promises about updating soon because I am unreliable.**


	21. Chapter 20

**SENIORS**

JULCHEN BEILSCHMIDT

Julchen had almost made Monika late for school. What could she say? She'd overslept and probably wouldn't have woken up until later that afternoon if Monika hadn't rudely pulled the blankets off Julchen and opened the blinds, exposing Julchen to the cold light. Julchen had been a disorganised whirl of chaos trying to get ready to drive Monika to school on time, because really Julchen couldn't care less about whether she was in on time, and had resorted to eating toast in the car which Monika gave her plenty of disapproving looks about. But Julchen managed to arrive to school before eight. Monika had sprinted into the building without a backwards glance to her sister, totally preoccupied with the possibility of being late for class.

Julchen watched her gallop away in a totally not weird way. Julchen loved Monika more than anyone else in the world, Old Fritz wasn't in the world anymore he didn't count, and she would do anything for Monika, fight anyone, she would defend Monika's honour. It was her duty as a big sister. And that was why the author was going to pay. Julchen had that piece of paper from Wednesday, the demo-List and whoever had been making The List hadn't originally included Monika. Sure it was Emily Bondervick, who Julchen acknowledged as at least partially awesome, but Julchen wouldn't care nearly as much because attacking Monika was over the line.

Julchen didn't even bother going into the school. She just began walking straight towards Kerry Park. At some point she was going to meet up with Monica Bonnefoy but Julchen had 'obtained' her number and would summon the fancy blonde girl whenever she felt like it. Which would be soon of course. Julchen really did want to know who the unawesome author was but she just needed a little time to herself.

Julchen was already at Kerry Park, her route was really fast. The park was pretty empty, just a couple people running around, getting their daily exercise in before work and some little kids walking to school, their bright bags taking up their entire backs. Something Julchen liked about going to Kerry Park this early was that anyone in the park was too preoccupied with what they were doing to wonder why she was there. Julchen strode off the path, jerked her jean leg off the brambles where it got caught and entered the clearing with the Bunker.

Julchen swung herself onto the roof of the Bunker. There were more beer cans scattered nearby than usual. There must've been some kind of party. Julchen had originally been wary of leaving stuff in area that people used for less the legal purposes before reasoning that anyone who came here was probably too far gone to be able to climb a tree. Julchen flung herself onto the deckchair and whipped out her phone. Time to convince Monica to skive and come meet Julchen. She punched in Monica's number and sent a text.

 **You: U leve class and meet at mein awesome Bunker and tell me everything u bout unawesome List**

Yeah that would work. Julchen tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Monica's agreement to meet her. A cool wind blew, rustling the trees and causing more leaves to fall in a golden rain. The leaves still on the trees were beautiful shades of yellow and red, surrounded Julchen but between them she could see the pale blue of the sky. Down on the ground the leaves were all murky brown, in the process of being trodden into mud and had crumpled beer cans thrown thoughtlessly around, glinting in the sunlight. Julchen was above it all.

Bleep.

 **Monica: Who is this?**

 **You: the** _ **AWESOME**_ **me**

 **Monica: Julchen**

 **You: JA!**

 **Monica: What do you want and how did you get my number?**

 **You: hahaha u will nvr no**

 **Monica: Well, why do you want me ditch class?**

 **Monica: I don't do that!**

 **You: cos if u dont ill tell Germania that u no stuff bout the list and then ull have 2 tell it 2 her not me**

Julchen waited patiently for Monica's response. Julchen had the upper hand in this negotiation easily, all she wanted was to know what Monica's knew and if she didn't want to say well then Julchen would just have to inform someone that Monica was with holding information and if _that_ didn't work then Julchen could bring up the fact that Monica was deeply involved in the illegal gambling that their school was notorious for. Julchen was fairly certain that Monica and one of Chun-Yan's brothers, Lee something or other, ran it. She'd had to prod Luka to reveal that little nugget of information but you could never have too much black mail. Hmm maybe Julchen should mention that.

 **You: btw heard ur good at cards**

Well that should do it.

 **Monica: Where do you want to meet?**

 **Monica: (I still don't like ditching)**

 **You: The Bunker**

 **Monica:?**

Julchen sighed. Why couldn't the name have caught on. It would've made communicating so much easier.

 **You: the building in Kerry Park were ppl drink**

 **Monica: I think I know the place.**

 **You: ull no it when u see it**

Monica didn't reply so Julchen simply presumed that Monica was starting to leave the school. It was almost almost funny the way that Monica was so reluctant to leave school but really what would she even be missing? Julchen sighed. It would probably take Monica _ages_ to get to the park. What was Julchen supposed to do in the mean time?

Julchen glanced at her box. She still has that torn music sheet she needed to put back. Julchen carefully removed the music from her bag and opened the box. Julchen unfolded the sheet and stared at the notes dotted across the page. The music was one of the last things Fritz had given her. He'd really wanted her to keep playing, not to forget like so many people would. Julchen had promised to keep practicing but she couldn't even pick up a flute anymore. The written music was her only substitute.

Julchen hastily slotted the repaired sheet in with its fellows, snugly nestled between two of her diaries. Her awesome diaries, detailing her awesome life. She'd written a report everyday of her life since as far back as she could remember. They worked as record of everything and could be surprisingly useful for embarrassing stories.

It had hurt so much when she'd caught her Mom reading her diary. She'd stared at her Mom in shock before screaming at her to put the diary down. Julchen had felt so angry she thought she might actually punch her mother but then she saw West poke her head out of her bedroom to see what the noise was about and suddenly all Julchen's anger turned into tears and she snatched her diary and rushed into her room, slamming the door in her mother's face. She'd then cried silently clutching the book to chest, the tears never quite leaving her eyes. They were tears of anger.

Her Mom had been reading her reading her diaries because she was worried for Julchen or something stupid like that. Julchen had been fine. Okay so Fritz had died a few months ago and she was being more impulsive, staying out later and the school had sent a letter to her parents saying she needed to be disciplined but really Julchen had been fine. There was no reason for her Mom to read her _personal_ diaries, it was like if someone had a nice rummage around her mind.

The last item in her box was a cheap camera. Elizaveta had given it to Julchen for her birthday back in freshman year, she'd bought it with her own money. Julchen, feeling nostalgic, pulled out the camera. She flicked through the photos saved to its memory.

Julchen wasn't a good photographer, she wasn't like Elizaveta who could capture people's emotions and personality in a still image, she didn't know any of the rules of composition and often took too long to take a photo meaning that whatever she was trying to capture had passed but there was so many photos that a few of them were half-way decent. Like a picture of a chick in running running around or that glorious picture of Toni after she and Francine had pushed him into a pool of mud. Then she'd pushed Francine into the mud and cannonballed in herself. This had quickly devolved into a mud fight. There was picture of that too, Francine and Toni bolting for the nearest showers with muck covering their bodies, Francine's careful plait stuck to her back by mud, Toni's skin was coated in gunk with several twigs sticking out of him. Julchen had been just as muddy but really hadn't cared. She's gone to give Monika a big hug before showering. Monika's squeal of disgust had been worth any punishments she would get. Julchen chuckled to herself.

She missed Toni and Franny. But at the same time she couldn't stand to look at them being all cute and lovey-dovey together. There was just a pain in seeing them be happily in love together and knowing that she wasn't loved like that. That Toni had chosen Francine and not her without even realising it. And then Francine had to be so smug about her victory and it had been more than Julchen could take. Her world had come crashing down in just a few months. Elizaveta had left her for the lipstick girls and Toni and Francine were a couple and she was the permanent third wheel that neither of them wanted.

And that was it, wasn't it? She wasn't wanted. Not by her former friends, not by the person she'd loved, not her parents, not even Old Fritz.. . . . Why did he have to die? It wasn't fair! Nothing was fair! She'd tried to make it fair by getting back at them all Francine and her new friend, Elizaveta's new group, her stupid boyfriend and what had Julchen achieved? It all stayed the same except worse.

Julchen threw the camera into the box, stood up and began kicking the tree.

kick- _It_ \- kick - _wasn't_ \- kick- _fair!_

"Julchen?"

Julchen whirled around, almost loosing her balance and falling off the roof, to see Monica Bonnefoy looking dreadfully out of place looking all prim and proper in her neat skirt and tidy shirt surrounded by mushed up leaves and beer cans. It was almost funny.

"Well, Monica you sure took your time." Julchen said confidently before swinging down off the bunker, landing heavily on the ground facing and standing up to face the neat girl. "Now then, let's discuss The List."

..

ELIZAVETA HÉDERVÁRY

Elizaveta stared dully at the board and tried to remember why she needed to know about vectors. She glanced to her left and spotted Bella eagerly taking notes. Crap, were they supposed to be taking down what was on the board? Elizaveta cranes her neck to see what the rest of the class were doing. Half were taking notes, the other half was staring raptly at the board. Sometimes she envied Yeketerina in the easier classes.

Elizaveta considered herself fairly smart, not top of any class but nowhere near failing; Yeketerina wasn't the brightest bulb which was odd considering how intelligent her sisters were, although even more odd was the fact that Yeketerina expressed no jealously over this; and then there was Bella, Elizaveta was convinced that one day she'd explode from the amount of work she did and high standards she set.

Elizaveta glanced up at the clock in the hope that more than a minute had passed in the minute she hadn't checked the time, unfortunately no, the hands were crawling across the clock face. Elizaveta let her head fall to her desk and groaned. Of Elizaveta only had one day to live she'd spend it in Mr Hussein's classroom, time always moved impossibly slowly.

Could she check her phone? Mr. Hussein wasn't looking over at her, he was too busy explaining the problem to a boy. Okay, just a quick check to see if she'd gotten any messages. She hadn't.

Elizaveta picked up her pen in the hope that it would somehow help her focus. She began tapping it against her desk.

Tap.

Why was she even in this class right now? There were things she needed to do. After she and Julchen stopped hanging out Elizaveta had vowed to not skive class out of boredom and she'd stuck to it but this was the first time she'd been severely tempted.

When was the bell going to ring? Elizaveta needed to find Monica. If Luka was to be believed, and Elizaveta was inclined to think so, then Monica might be able to point them in the direction of the author and from there-

"Ms. Héderváry, do you have the answer?" Mr. Hussein said, with that hopeful look all teachers had when it's almost their coffee break.

"Er….." Elizaveta was spared having to answer that when the bell rang. Oh thank God for the bell. She was free.

The class streamed out before Me. Hussein had time to give them homework. Elizaveta slung her bag over her shoulder and turned to Bella. "What was that class? Because I had _no idea_ what was happening." Bella gave her an affectionate disapproving look. "Liza, were you not paying attention again?"

Elizaveta gave her a sheepish grin. "Not exactly."

"Elizaveta! You should pay attention it's- oh my god." Bella pointed behind Elizaveta in shock. Elizaveta spun round to see Julchen storming up the corridor towards them. She was livid. Her law was clenched and her hands were fists. Julchen looked as though she was about to set fire to someone's locker. And she was stomping towards them. Shit.

But then Julchen didn't.

" _ **YOU!**_ "she roared. Her glare fixed on one person, which thankfully wasn't Elizaveta or Bella. She thundered past them to a group of juniors. The whole corridor collectively held its breath as Julchen came to a stop in front of Francine, opened her mouth and yelled.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH- You are the most fucking bitchy- I hate you so much- Fuck you!"

Francine gave a small confused look to the girl beside her who shrugged. Francine turned back to Julchen and said in her best condescending voice. "Julchen, mon ami, I do not know-"

"Don't _'mon ami'_ me- you know- you _fucking_ know what- why would you- Monika- she was _so upset_ \- And _you did that!-_ You always do that- You and Toni- You took him- but I know, I know everything- Luka and Monica told me how you – You- You Evolutionsbremse. I _hate you!_ " And then Julchen swung.

Later Elizaveta would hear people taking about how what happened next happened in slow motion. They talked about how they saw Julchen arm slowly swing and Francine's eyes widen. For Elizaveta it was all at once.

Suddenly Julchen's fist was colliding with Francine's face, Francine was knocked to the ground and the world erupted into noise. Francine's friend was yelling at Julchen, Bella gasped loudly and gripped Elizaveta's arm, a freshman screamed. Oddly enough, the quietest people were Francine and Julchen. Francine was lying on the ground with her arms shielding her face. Julchen was standing over her. Elizaveta couldn't see her face from where she stood but Julchen's stance was still aggressive.

Elizaveta shook Bella off and ran up the centre of the corridor, the students had parted like the Red Sea when Julchen had appeared. Julchen was raising her foot to kick the cowering girl. Elizaveta grabbed Julchen's arm and whirled her around. " _Stop!_ "

Elizaveta stared into Julchen's face. She breathing heavily and her face was flushed red with rage. But the strangest thing was the tears in Julchen's eyes. They were just in her eyes, there was no threat of them overspilling and to see them you would have to be as close to Julchen as Elizaveta was now.

"Don't hit her again." Elizaveta implored, subconsciously using the tone she always used to convince Julchen not to do something reckless. Julchen blinked slowly and her red eyes focused on Elizaveta. "Think about what you're doing for just a second" Julchen's glare relaxed ever so slightly and her eyes widened. Elizaveta recognised Julchen's rage breaking.

Elizaveta felt the gazes of the other students rest on them, their voices a buzz of noise. Julchen was breathing heavily. Elizaveta grabbed Julchen's arm and forcibly dragged her into the nearby bathroom, exchanging a look with Bella who nodded in understanding. Elizaveta shoved Julchen through the bathroom door and sent a glare out to the other students to dissuade them from coming in before slamming the door closed.

Elizaveta spun around on the ball of her foot and marched up to Julchen. "What the _fuck_ was that?"

Julchen who had been glaring at the mirror now fixed her glare on Elizaveta. "Francine's a little shit."

Elizaveta waited for further explanation when none was offered she prodded further. "Okay, why and why the hell did you _punch_ her?!"

"Because she's the verdammt author!" Julchen snarled, pointing at the door the where Francine was. Elizaveta stared at her former friend.

"Francine?"

"Yes!"

"The author?"

" _Yes!_ "

Julchen was getting angrier with each word, soon she'd be back to screaming incoherently while punching someone and Elizaveta's disbelieving questioning was not helping matters.

"Why?" Julchen looked blankly at Elizaveta who plowed on. "What evidence do you have? Because right now, it looks to me like you just punched someone you don't like for no reason!"

"Monica Bonnefoy, okay! That's my evidence. I went to Luka who told me to go to Monica who told me it was Francine. 'Course you wouldn't have thought to ask either of them." Julchen sneered the last part.

"Actually, I was going to ask Monica today because Luka pointed her out to me because Julchen, you're wrong, I do have a working brain and no, you weren't being subtle." Elizaveta snapped. She hadn't meant to get mad but Julchen right now was reminding her why they were no longer friends. Julchen was irresponsible, impulsive and irrationally aggressive and Elizaveta did not need to put up with it.

"Monica told me that she saw Viet Ling run off and Mei Wang go crying into a bathroom. Then saw Francine take _something_ out of the trashcan. She went to comfort Mei and found out that _Mei_ wrote The List last year and had just thrown the stamp away. _In the trashcan._ Don't you see? It was Francine the whole time. She did this. All of it!" Julchen slammed her hand down on the sink to punctuate her fury.

Elizaveta stared at her without really seeing, too lost in thought. Francine. Maybe? It was possible, a further escalation of the feud between Francine and Julchen. After all, the signs did point to someone out to get Julchen, as paranoid as it sounded, and Francine did fit the bill as someone out to get revenge on Francine.

"Are you sure about this?"

Julchen scoffed. "Would I have punched her if I wasn't?"

"Yes." Elizaveta replied automatically. Julchen eyes widened in shock and Elizaveta wished she could take back her honesty.

"… well I'm sure about this anyway" Julchen recovered, burying her hurt.

"I'll need to think about this." Elizaveta said after a beat. Julchen looked at her in confusion. "I don't care if you believe me."

Elizaveta raised an eyebrow and in a voice dripping with disdain said "You should, since I can actually do something about it if you're right."

"Because you entered the unawesome crowd and they're more help, right" Julchen said with so much sarcasm Alice Kirkland would be impressed.

"Well Julchen, Francine would be more likely to cave to me and my friends than to a single social pariah." Elizaveta sneered

Julchen glared at Elizaveta, hating her reminder of the school's opinion of them both. "And if she caves, what are you going to do?"

Elizaveta paused. Should she tell Julchen about the loose plan she'd made with Bella and Yeketerina? Julchen could keep secrets but Elizaveta didn't want Julchen involved in any way. It always became messier when she was involved. "You don't need to know."

"If you're not telling me your plans then I'll just have to carry out mine." The two former friends locked eyes.

"And what exactly is your plan?" Elizaveta said after a pause, not breaking eye contact.

"You don't need to know." Julchen parroted her words back at Elizaveta, batting her eyelashes ridiculously.

" _Fine then."_ Elizaveta spat.

" _Good."_ Julchen snarled.

They glared at each other. Then Julchen's eyes softened.

"What happened to us?"

Elizaveta sighed sadly "We grew up."

..

 **Hi?**


	22. Chapter 21

**FRESHMEN**

MONIKA BEILSCHMIDT

Monika was glad she was an early riser, it meant that she had breakfast before either Julchen or her parents came downstairs. The tension from yesterday fills the house like a gas. Monika had tuned out the latter part of the arguement. It hadn't been pleasant.

She poured milk into her cereal and sat down to eat. Early morning sunlight steamed into the kitchen and a bird outside was trying to pull a worm out of the frozen ground. Monika watched its struggle through the window. It was totally dedicated to its task not noticing anything around it.

Monika picked up her spoon and ate a mouthful of cereal, chewing slowly. Monika couldn't help but think back to yesterday and Onkel Otto's advice. Let Julchen go, let her make her own mistakes and grow up herself. It was tempting. Looking after Julchen was so tiring and Monika wished she could have more time to herself.

The bird was struggling with the worm. If Monika was to stop aganosing over Julchen then what? Julchen would still run off and do stupid things like that time Julchen had set off fireworks outside the Edelstein's house on the fourth of July. She always did ridiculous things on oddly appropriate days. Monika wanted her to stop but how could she do that if she was supposed to not interfere? Perhaps she was overthinking things.

Monika realised she was breathing rather quickly for someone simply eating breakfast and tried to calm down. Maybe she should just let Julchen go, after all there wasn't anything that Julchen was planning. Things would peaceful. Monika allowed herself a small smile of relief before her common sense decided to remind her of the Homecoming dance. Sheiße.

Monika pushed her cereal away from her she wasn't really hungry anymore. The bird managed to tug the worm out of the ground and was tearing into it.

…

Monika decided that it had been a mistake to take both German and French. She'd decided to do German because, well, her family was from Germany and some of her onkels would speak German to her. French however, she'd taken that because she thought it would be fun. That had been a mistake. Ms. Martin loved giving them a page of verbs and telling them they'd have a test on them the next day. So Monika was now in her room trying to learn a page of verbs for an inevitable test on Monday while Julchen blasted German rock music in the room beside hers. Having a test on Monday would be quite unfair for all he people who were going to Homecoming.

 _Espérer – to hope_

Monika hoped that Felicity had a good time at the dance and that Julchen wouldn't ruin it for everyone.

 _Se Ruiner- to ruin yourself_

Because she'd also ruin herself. Didn't she want for Elizaveta and Antonio and all the others to still be her friends? Monika wasn't the best at picking up on social cues and she knew she could be almost as dense as Felicity but Julchen didn't really seem to have many friends at school.

 _Disputer- to argue_

They probably had an argument or something. But if they could make up then Julchen would have other people to look after her and wouldn't she be happier?

 _Savoir- to know_

Monika needed to know what had happened between them and maybe if Julchen had her friends back Monika could..

 _S'amuser- to have fun_

..Yeah that. These verbs were oddly appropriate.

Monika glanced at the wall between her room and Julchen's. The music was just a tiny bit quieter than a machine gun and Monika's books were vibrating on their shelf. It was impossible to concentrate on _anything_ with that din. There was now an odd rhythmic thud reverberating around the house and Monika let out a sigh of relief when she remember her mother was out buying eggs, she'd have a fit at Julchen's racket. Monika went back to the verb sheet.

 _Chanter- to si-_

 _-"_ ZWANZIG!"

The sudden triumphant yell startled Monika, causing her to stare at the wall. She had to know what was going on in there and, maybe, talk to Julchen about everything she'd been thinking.

Under normal circumstances, Monika would knock before going into someone's bedroom _especially_ Julchen (There were images Monika would never forget no matter how she wanted to.) but a firm knock on a door would be lost in the chaos of noise so she just pushed to door open to see what was going on.

Julchen was doing jumping jacks as any sane, rational person would be. Monika stared at her sister bouncing up and down, her back turned towards her, counting loudly in German. She had earphones in that swung loosely as she jumped and Dad's huge, pride of his life, barbecue only, speakers had been dragged up and Julchen's phone was connected to them as they defeaned anyone unfortunate enough to be in their blast radius.

Monika, her hands clapped over her ears, strode over to the plug and pulled it out. The silence was almost as loud as the music had been. Julchen whirled around, pulling out her earphones that weren't connected to anything, ready with a retort but then saw who it was that had ended the music.

"West."

"Julchen."

There was an awkward pause as they both tried to say something to fill the silence.

"The music was very loud." Monika eventually said lamely.

"Yeah, it was meant to annoy Mutti. Not that, that's very hard." Julchen chuckled dryly to herself.

Monika stared at her sister. Her face was flushed red and she stank of sweat. Her hair was so greasy it looked wet. She was wearing the same sweat pants and t-shirt as she had the last three days. While Julchen was not the best at personal hygiene and often didn't change her clothes for several days, normally by the time she smelt like a sewer she'd have a shower. "What are you planning?" Monika asked in the tone of someone who had suffered greatly and knew more tragedy was yet to come.

Julchen smiled her sunshine smile. "I'm not planning anything, West. Just doing doing some exercise."

"No, really, what are you doing?" Monika was not going to let it go, not this time.

Julchen looked Monika dead in the eye. "Do you really want to know? Because that would make you my accomplice." She grinned again like a cat thinking about the canary she's about eat.

"I know you're planning something for the Homecoming and dance and I'm not going to let you." Monika said firmly, crossing her arms in an attempt to look bigger which wasn't necessary, Monika was already looked as much like a tank as possible for a teenage girl.

Julchen stopped smiling. "Why would you do that? Why would you not want me to defend you?" She looked taken aback, like this was never a possibility in her mind. Ever.

"Because I don't want something ruined for the _entire_ _school_ just because of a piece of paper." Monika snapped. She had to make Julchen see sense. Felicity had been so excited for the dance.

"But it's not just a piece of paper. It's the whole unawesome school, it's their fault and I'm not just going to stand back and let them celebrate this, not when it's such an important part of the dance." Julchen explained, anger creeping into her voice. "Don't you see, Monnie, it's not just the author that's the problem it's the _whole_ school and I have to punish them for it."

Monika took a step back from her sister. Julchen sounded deranged, crazy, mad. "But The List isn't celebrated, it's just a dance." She protested.

Julchen stared at her, then laughed darkly to herself. "Right, of course. You don't know the tradition." She said quietly, more to herself than Monika.

"What do you mean?"

"Julchen looked at her baby sister with tired eyes. "Every Homecoming dance" she began "the prettiest senior is Homecoming queen." Monika blinked, not really seeing the big repercussions. "That means" Julchen patiently explained. "that most of the students fully agree with The List since most of them always vote for the unawesome girl named prettiest by it, without question because they believe in it and believe what it says even if they pretend they don't. So tonight I'm going to hit back." There was a manic gleam in Julchen's eye.

Monika reeled back from what Julchen was implying, that everyone subconsciously saw her as Manika. Everyone. Even her friends. Even Felicity.

"Wh-What are you going to do?" Monika stumbled over her words.

Julchen spun on the spot then flopped onto her bed. "You don't need to know that, West."

"Tell me!" Monika barked, sounding oddly like Berlitz.

Julchen lazily raised her head. "Well let's just say that the queen this year is going to be a bit smellier and more awesome than most and she's going to make a speech about who the author is. That or I moon the audience, I'm still deciding." Julchen cackled maniacally while Monika stared at her. Julchen was going to go the dance in her sweaty clothes, amongst all the made-up, pristine girls and stink out the place, then somehow be voted Homecoming Queen and then reveal to the whole school who the author was. It would be huge. Monika honestly wasn't sure if the social order would be able to pick itself up after that. It was brilliant.

But it was also unfair. It wasn't fair to the people who had nothing to do with The List and were just going to quietly enjoy a dance. For many, their last Homecoming dance. It wasn't really fair to take that away. And also..

"..They'll hate you, Julchen." Monika said suddenly. "If you do this, no one will talk to you, you'll be all alone, hated and everyone will shun you…" Monika stopped at the look on Julchen's face. It was despair and Julchen smiled like she had something especially bitter in her mouth. "Bit late for that now." Julchen said in a dark tone.

Monika quickly ran through all the times she'd seen Julchen in school. Not one of those times was she with anyone. She was never with Antonio and Francine, even just last year the three of them were inseparable; never with Lovina, or as Julchen had always called her, 'the tag along'; and strangest of all, never with Elizaveta, even though she was practically family; Julchen was always alone and ignored. She'd already done something to be cast out.

"What did you do?" Monik asked blankly.

Julchen looked at her confused. "I haven't done anything _yet._ "

"No." Monika shook her head, trying to come up with a way of explaining what she'd realised. "It must have been last year, I would have noticed if it was during September."

"Monika," Julchen slowly sat up. "What are you talking about?"

"What did you do last year to have everyone hate you?" Monika was a blunt person by nature, it tended to rub people the wrong way.

Julchen stood up in alarm. "Who told you? It was Lovina, wasn't it? Damn it! I should've know she would've told Felicity and Felicity could never keep a secret-"

"Felicity didn't tell me anything." Monika interjected. "And Lovina wouldn't have a conversation with me even if she was held at gunpoint."

"Then how?" Julchen moaned.

"I… I just worked it out now." Monika said hesitantly. "And you just confirmed it."

"Fick. Sheiße. Sheiße. Fucking sheiße. Fick." Julchen cursed for a solids minute, switching between English and German.

"Are you done?" Monika asked hesitantly.

"I will never be done with swearing." Julchen said with one of the most serious tones Monika had ever heard her older sister use.

"So are you going to tell me what exactly happened?" Monika inquired. Julchen sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.

Julchen stared at her feet. "It's pretty unawesome." She admitted. Monika sat down beside her. Julchen looked at her and realised she was not getting out of this.

"Well," she began "as you know last year I had three pretty awesome friends." Monika nodded, translating that into Elizaveta, Antonio and Francine. "And you also know, that a lot of the stuff I was doing wasn't exactly, what would the word be?" "Legal" Monika supplied deadpan. She remembered that time the police came to the house with Julchen in tow. Julchen scoffed. "I was going to say approved of but that's the general idea. And they would have fun with me too but then all of them betrayed me in different ways." She lapsed into silence, busy thinking about the past. Monika coughed gently, to remind Julchen to keep going even if she was using a fair amount of hyperbole. "Francine and I started fighting over Toni and then he chose her. And it was so hard to be around them. It wasn't just the third-wheeling aspect but they always so unawesomely cute and couple about everything. It was unawesome and they just threw me away once they didn't need me." Julchen snarled that last part. "And Elizaveta, she had to do worst possible thing. She got together with _Roderich Edelstein_ and then became totally unawesome with stupid Bella and Yeketerina."

Monika awkwardly put her hand on Julchen's arm, calming her down. Julchen stared at the ceiling as though it was a window to her former friends. "So then what?" Monika prodded after Julchen didn't say anything for a solid minute.

Julchen jerked herself out of whatever part of her mind she'd descended to. "I had to get revenge on them. _No one_ gets rid of Julchen Gillian Beilschmidt that easily. They were having a big party after junior prom, everyone who was unawesome was going, even the sophomores so it was the perfect time to enact my wrath!" Julchen was really getting into telling the story. "Everyone would get their own little reminder if my awesomeness. Elizaveta got a fish and some of her cameras have never been the same since." Julchen sniggered. "Granny always has an alarm on but it does t detect a second floor window being opened, so she got a fish and a message left on her mirror. But it gets better, I sneaked into Bella's house, emptied her shampoo and replaced it with wash-in, long lasting brown hair dye. _That_ was probably the funniest one. She looked so mad with her brown hair." Julchen cackled.

Monika stared at her in horror. "Julchen, do you realise how illegal that was? You broke into people's houses." Julchen just shrugged as though that wasn't the worst thing she'd done.

Monika suddenly had a thought and then wished she could unthink it. "Julchen?" "Mmmm" Julchen hummed. "You . . Please tell me you weren't the one who destroyed the Edelstein's piano, please."

Julchen had the decency to look slightly sheepish. "Yeah, Roddy's was the hardest cos he is not someone to stay at parties and I didn't know if his parents were home or whatever but it worked out pretty well."

Monika stared at Julchen. She'd heard the story secondhand. The Edelsteins were a very musical family and one of their prides and joys was their piano collection. They had two pianos and a keyboard. One of the pianos was a 18th century antique that Roderich's father inherited, the other was a modern piano that was a gift to Roderich for getting a scholarship for a music school. He'd been ridiculously proud of it and bragged to anyone who would listen about his piano. Then last May someone broke into their home and vandalised it.

"You wrote 'She wants the D' on Roderich's piano!" Monika was aghast.

Julchen scoffed. "I only wrote 'She Wants The' and painted the piano key. Everyone else just has a dirty mind." "Julchen!" Julchen protested. "You wanted to know."

"I suppose I did." Monika sighed removed herself from Julchen. She stared at her sister seriously. "I don't want to hear anymore but please promise me you won't ruin the Homecoming dance."

"But Monnie-"

"I don't care if you think the _entire_ school deserves retribution but I don't think everyone is bad so just let them have fun." Monika was standing by the door by now and Julchen was staring at her in total confusion, unable to see how Monika didn't want to ruin the dance for everyone. "Just take a shower, Julchen." Monika strode out of the bedroom, calmly closing the door behind.

She'd done it. She wasn't forcing Julchen into the shower but still was helping Julchen and if Julchen continued to make mistakes but she'd done it.

..

FELICITY VARGAS

Felicity hummed as she skipped towards Monika's house. The shopping bag she was carrying swung back and forth as she bounced, her shoes slapping on the sidewalk. Normally when she skipped her ponytail swished around her head. Her neck felt very exposed without it.

She was already in her outfit for Homecoming. She had considered going to the game but then she wouldn't be a surprise. Lillie had offered to let her get ready at her house but Felicity declined, she wanted Monika to see her first. Well, that was never going to be true. Her Grandpa and Lovina had been the first to see her new look.

Lovina had been horrified and bemoaned 'the stupid potatoe bitch's influence on Felicity's innocence'. Felicity wasn't quite sure what her haircut had to do with her innocence but shrugged it off as Lovi being Lovi. Grandpa Roma had tutted at her hair and Felicity had been worried he was mad but then he sat her down in the kitchen chair and simply tidied it up a bit. He then asked very seriously "Are you transgender?".

Lovina spat out her coffee and began choking while Felicity opened and closed her mouth with no sound coming out. Grandpa Roma hastily back tracked. "Never mind, never mind. But if you were that would be fine." Lovina then took the next twenty minutes to explain why Felicity was not.

Felicity stopped and glanced around the nieghbourhood, trying to remember where Monika's house was. Felicity remembered that there were a lot of ferns growing around Monika's garden much to her mother's frustration. Mrs Beilschmidt had often talked about hiring a gardener. She never did.

She'd only been to Monika's house a couple times and she wasn't really that good with directions. It would be pretty embarrassing if she got lost during her grand gesture of friendship. Felicity never really worried too much about getting lost because even if she didn't know where she was going she knew where she'd come from so she was never truly lost because she knew how to go back to somewhere she knew. Anyway she was bound to find her destination after enough wandering around. It might help if she'd checked the address. Ah well, too late now.

Felicity continued to wander in and out of cul-de-sacs and roads that all seemed to have an identical pattern of trees lining the road and neat wooden houses. More than once Felicity had to check to make sure that she hadn't doubled back in her path.

That was something she liked about her home. Sure it was just a rickety apartment over a restaurant in the middle of town but it was so unique not like the estate she was currently not lost in. You couldn't mistake Café Roma for any other place. Her Grandpa had decorated the restaurant in his own unique way, combining Italian and American with hints of Ancient Rome everywhere. Her Grandpa was really passionate about Rome, Felicity wasn't sure why. And their apartment was chock full of knick-knacks and stuff, postcards from foreign countries were jammed in the gaps on the shelves, tiny vases painted like flags with even tinier flowers tentatively blooming lined the window sills, a hoard of fluffy blankets and soft eagle pillows stacked on every chair, couch or bed and the big SPQR banner hung over the kitchen door. Her home was so different from Monika's.

More trees and neat lawns. Felicity wanted just one house to have grass that came up to her knees. It would be _something_ different. Her wish was answered almost at once when she spotted a garden with ferns in the grass. There that was something-

Wait.

Ferns.

She'd made it.

Felicity pranced up to the plain door, noting the lack of cars in the driveway, and enthusiastically rang the bell. Inside, all hell seemed to break loose as the dogs began barking loudly. Felicity could hear heavy breathing and scratching as one of Monika's dogs leapt excitedly at the door.

"No, down girls.. We talked about this! If you're going to do that, do it in the garden! Blackie let go of Berlitz" Monika's voice, raised to command her dogs, came through the door clearly. Felicity giggled. Monika was always chasing after her dogs. Once Felicty had come with her while she walked the three of them. It had been …. an experience. Felicity was more of a cat person anyway. She vaguely remembered having two cat back in Italy. Romano and Veneziano. She wondered vaguely what happened to them.

Monika slowly opened the door, fighting to make sure Blackie didn't make a run for freedom through the open door. "Ciao, Monnie!" Felicity trilled.

Monika looked up in surprise. "Feli, why are you here before the da- Your _hair!_ " If Monika had been surprised before that was nothing compared to now. She gaped at Felicity as her brain tried to process what she was seeing. Blackie made a quick break for the wide outside and Monika was brought back to reality to wrestle her dog into the kitchen. She beckoned Felicity to come into the house after her. Felicity complied and caught a look at herself in the big mantle place mirror.

Felicity had taken the kitchen scissors and cut her hair to head. It came down to just below her ears and curled subtly towards her face, at the back the ends tickled the nape of her neck, her hair fell all over the place, even giving her something resembling a fringe. It was, in short, a boy's haircut. To complete the transformation, Felicity was wearing a small tuxedo. It was illfitting, too wide on the shoulders, too tight on the hips but it still looked good on her. Felicity was rather flat and didn't have too much of a defined figure. With the haircut and the suit, she almost looked like a boy. A rather feminine boy to be sure but hey what could you do?

"Fe- Felicity, what did you do?" Monika managed to say.

Felicity took a deep breath. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to be able to explain her thoughts. "You wanted to go to Homecoming before The List and now you don't." Monika nodded involuntarily "and it's because you don't want people to call you a man. So you're not going but if I look like a man and if I'm the prettiest then that means you're pretty too. And I don't want you to feel sad so if I look like a boy too then people can't say anything! And I think you're pretty anyway." Felicity added almost as an afterthought.

Monika staredat her, stunned. Small pinpricks of tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. Felicity wondered if she'd done something wrong. "I, um, got your dress for you." Felicity proffered the bag forward. Monika took it and stared at the black wad of material rolled up inside a green jacket.

"Felicity.." Monika managed before she rushed into her in a hug. Felicity was startled. Monika never gave hugs, it was always Felicity. She hugged back the bigger girl fiercely.

They broke apart after a moment and Monika coughed awkwardly. "Sorry for that … act of rudeness."

Felicity shrugged. "I like hugs from pretty girls." Monika blushed and Felicity beamed. "So do you want to come to Homecoming?"

Monika nodded. She looked at Felicity like she wanted to say something but couldn't get it out. She nodded again and took the bag. "I .. thank you… my friend. I should .. I should get changed."

Monika hurried up the stairs, calling to Julchen as she did "I will be going to Homecoming. I'll leave in just a minute. Don't forget to lock the door." She closed her door quietly behind her.

Felicity felt like she was floating. Monika was happy, she'd even called Felicity her friend and they were going to the dance. Sure people would talk and be mean and scary but Monika would fight the scary people and Felicity would be there for Monika when she wasn't strong.

Felicity looked at herself in the mirror again. She twirled gently so her jacket whirled out around her. She liked the suit. Maybe she'd them wear more.

There was a slight freak as Monika's door opened and she stepped out. She might not win any beauty pageants but to Felicity the small grin on Monika's face was beautiful.

And the two of them left for the dance, the small, feminine girl in the suit and the big, strong girl in the dress.

 **..**

 **This came out more shippy than I meant.**

 **There's been a lot of hugging and crying. What is this, Steven Universe?**

 **Now the question everyone is waiting for the answer for. Why did this take so fucking long? I mean when I said it would take three months I didn't actually mean to take three months. A couple reasons. 1. I was abroad. I was in Rome being a tourist and then I took two weeks to try to improve my French, it's still abismal by the way. 2. A good friend of mine's Dad died and that put me off me writing quite a bit. It was more stuff to do with Alice but it still extended to Felicity and Monika. 3. And lastly, I really wanted this to go well. This is the last time we'll hear from these two and I wanted their ending to be a good one. I'm still not pleased with Felicity but there's not much I could change about it. Anyway, I kept rewriting and editing and adding in new bits so this took a long ass time. And yeah you will probably expect the same kind of thing from the next three endings so I'm sorry about that.**

 **For those of you who bore with me this long and read this note, I really appreciate it. I don't often say it but thank you everyone, from the reliable reviewer (shout out to Rising from the Ashes, love you) to the anonymous reader. I am grateful that each and everyone of you took time to read my silly high school angst fest. So _thank you_ for following, favouriting, reviewing and, most of all, reading and sticking with me through infrequent updates.**


	23. Chapter 22

**SOPHOMORES**

FELKA ŁUKASIEWICZ

On the Saturday of Homecoming Felka received three visitors (and no, they were not the ghosts of Homecoming past, present and future). The first was an abashed Elizaveta.

Felka had been sprawled on the sitting room couch, still in her pajamas, hair in a loose pony tail with stray strands falling into her face, scrolling through Instagram when the doorbell rang. Her Dad was in the kitchen and called for Felka to answer the door as he busy baking an elaborate cake. Felka lethargically flopped off the couch and dragged herself to the door. She half heartedly opened the door to reveal a slightly damp Elizaveta standing in the sudden shower.

"Lizzie?" Felka blurted out, her surprise pulling her out of her apathy.

Elizaveta looked a little awkward, she was holding a cake tin tucked under her arm. "Hi, Fel. I, er, brought you a cake. Um, it's not as good as Roderich's or your Dad's but, um, I just thought you might like it." She offered the cake tin.

Felka took it gingerly. While most of the school was under the impression that Elizaveta was a master baker, Felka knew better. The wonderful cakes and pastries that Lizzie brought to school were gifts made by her adorkable boyfriend. Anything Lizzie actually baked usually had the appearance and taste of tar. "Um, like, thanks, I guess."

The two of them stood in the doorway for a minute before Elizaveta cleared her throats and Felka realised her friend was standing outside her house in the rain. "Do you, like, want to come in?"

"Would you mind?" Elizaveta cautioned.

"Yeah, it's fine. Come in."

Felka lead Elizaveta into the kitchen were the smell of baking cake wafted from the oven and Lizzie cautiously glanced at her own cake before sitting on one of the stooos at the kitchen island. "So, Fel, how are you?"

Felka shrugged not meeting Lizzie's eyes. "I'm okay. I am totally okay."

Elizaveta purses her lips. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked softly as though Felka might shatter, which was a real possibility.

"… no."

"Um… okay. But if you ever want to talk, you know I'll be here." Lizzie said gently.

Felka nodded feeling her eyes grow warm. And the strange thing was, she wasn't almost crying because of Toris, she almost crying that Lizzie had come to see how she was. It felt as though it'd been ages since they'd talked but that was the way their friendship worked; they wouldn't talk for months at a time but then they'd support each other through tough times.

Elizaveta stayed for another hour and in that time they watched a rerun of _Gossip Girl_ and Lizzie convinced Felka to brush her teeth and get dressed.

…

The second person to visit was an uncertain Hedvika. She had a tub of strawberry ice-cream with her. "Um… Hi, Hedvika."

"Hi, Felka. Um, do you want to eat ice cream and watch chick flicks with me?" Hedvika gabbled as though she had only three seconds to speak.

"Yeah, um, okay." Felka gestured for Hedvika to come in. She deposited the ice cream beside Elizaveta's abandoned cake.

Hedvika took out several DVDs from her bag and spread them out. Eventually they settled on _The Notebook._ The two then sat and watched the screen. Hesvika had a bowl of ice-cream on her lap and kept glancing at Felka as she ignored her own bowl of ice-cream.

At around the first hour mark Felka realised exactly what was going on. Hedvika was trying to cheer her up. It was …. Sweet, she supposed and Hedvika wasn't directly saying anything but Felka felt a little silly. While normally she'd be right there with Hedvika, tearfully eating ice-cream while watching the sweet love story. The fact that it was supposed to make her feel better just made her feel awkward. It was like Hedvika only knowledge on how to deal with someone after a break up was from movie montages.

At the end of the movie while Hedvika reached for the next DVD, Felka caught her arm. "Hedvika, are you, like, trying to cheer me up or something?"

A rather guilty expression fell on Hedvika's face. "Is it working?"

"Like, not really but thanks for trying." Felka said breezily.

Hedvika immediately look distraught. "I.. I wanted to make you feel better…. I wanted to be a good friend."

Felka sighed. "Look you, like, are but, like, don't you have other things you'd rather do." She glanced at the clock. "Aren't you, like, going to the dance, aren't you going to get ready soon?"

Hedvika shuffled her feet sheepishly. "I was going to stay with you. Try and make you feel better." Her voice became steadily quieter until it was just a mumble at the end.

"Like, you don't need to. Go have fun." Felka shooed her.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You don't want me to stay?"

"Like, I'd rather be alone right now."

"Okay." Hedvika shouldered her bag onto her back and walked with Felka towards the front door. "Are you sure, Felka?"

Felka nodded. "Go enjoy the dance. Spill punch on Natalia or something." Hedvika giggled and through Felka into a hug. "You're a great friend."

And then she left.

Felka retreated back into the kitchen and began cleaning up the ice-cream bowls. Her Dad walked in, impeccably neat and nodded at her approvingly. "Yes, put those in the dishwasher. I made a cake if you want something sweet to eat." He said in the closest he came to gentle.

"Like, why does everyone keep offering me food?" Felka snapped. "I'll put on weight and, like, I don't really care but still."

…

The last visitor was someone Felka never saw coming. Hedvika had only been gone half an hour when there was another knock on the door. Privately thinking that this was getting ridiculous and if Amelia or whoever it was had brought more food she would just turn them straight back around, she wrenched open the door to see an impassive Natalia staring coolly at the door.

"Natalia? Why are you here?" That came out meaner than Felka had intended but she really didn't want to deal with Natalia gloating of all things.

Natalia gave her a quick look up and down. "Felka."

They stared each other down. Natalia's icy eyes fixed on Felka's narrowed eyes.

"I wanted to apologise." Natalia broke the silence with her level voice.

Felka's eyebrows shot up her face in surprise. "For what?" For stealing my boyfriend. Except Natalia hadn't done that, Felka had. And anyway it was all Toris' descicion. It wasn't like Natalia had put him under some mystical love spell. This wasn't Harry Potter.

"I misjudged you." Natalia said calmly. "I thought you were a thoughtless, selfish idiot who didn't care for anyone's feelings other than her own."

"Wow, like, thanks for going easy on me." Felka snorted.

"But I was wrong." Natalia acknowledged. "You are still an idiot but" she stopped at though she didn't want to admit it. "but I was impressed by what you did on Thursday."

Felka blinked and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "You mean, like, break up with Toris?" She paused. "It was what was best, so, like, yeah." She finished lamely and examined her nails. Last night she'd used nail varnish remover and her hands looked rather bare now.

"It was brave. I didn't think you'd have it in you to do it." Natalia said, drawing Felka's attention away from her hands.

"Well, like, thanks, I guess. I always wanted to be told I was an idiot." Felka sniffed and flicked her hair out of her face. That one strand was starting to really annoy her.

"Happy to oblige." Natalia said, deadpan.

"Did you just, like, make a joke?" Felka stared, as shocked as if Francine had declared herself celibate. "I didn't know you even, like, had a sense of humour."

"And I didn't know you were actually brave." Natalia cut back. "I suppose we're learning a lot about each other." She said with a wan smile. Felka had never seen Natalia smile. It was slightly creepy but also rather nice.

"Do you, like, want to come inside? I have cake and ice-cream if you want." Felka offered, taking a moment to realise how strange this day had been if she was genuinely offering Natalia cake.

"No, thank you. I have to go to Homecoming." Natalia said calmly. Although she did seem to perk slightly at the idea of cake.

"Oh, right." Felka had almost forgotten about the dance. How weird was that? "Well, like, have a good time with Toris." It was odd to find out but Felka really meant it. She hoped Toris and, to a lesser amount, Natalia, would be happy.

"Thank you." Natalia gave Felka a small smile and left.

Felka closed the door as she walked back inside. Her Dad glanced up from the book he reading. "Who was that, Felka?"

Felka glanced back at the door, still surprised and confused. "Natalia."

"Oh. That one." Her Dad said flatly, having heard Felka moan about her.

"Actually, I don't think she's that bad." Felka mused.

..

MADELINE WILLIAMS

It wasn't that Madeline had never been to a party before, she had. Mostly as Amelia's tag along but it still counted, she wasn't unfamiliar with parties. However this one was in its own league, maybe it was because they were now sophomores and were considered cool enough to go to proper parties, or it was because it was before a big dance and the football team had won their match or maybe Jett Kirkland's parties were always better than your average party but everyone was drinking as though the world was ending. Whatever the reason Madeline knew she was in over her head when a girl started stripping because she felt she wasn't getting enough attention from her boyfriend. They were still on the couch. He'd lost most of his clothes too.

Jett's house was huge and it seemed like the entire population of Iceland was crammed in the house. Everyone who was anyone was here, Madeline could've sworn at one point she'd even spotted Carlos. Someone she _had_ spotted was Amelia. She had then immediately pretended she hadn't. Despite living in the same house, Madeline had no idea where she stood with Amelia or really anyone else who happened to sleep in the same house as her, aka her family.

There was a yell and Madeline instinctively ducked as the lamp soared through the air where her head had been. 'Okay' said Madeline's brain 'Time to change rooms'. It was becoming clear to Madeline that most of the people here wouldn't be going to Homecoming. They _might_ surface tomorrow before noon but that was likely to be in a rather sorry state.

She slipped through the sliding glass doors and found herself on a slightly raised patio overlooking the garden. The garden was just as full as inside the house, probably because there was a table overflowing with drinks. Madeline wandered over to the edge of the patio and checked the time on her phone, she would have to leave soon if she wanted to make it to Homecoming.

"Hey there, cutie" Madeline turned around to see a wall of a boy. He looked like the kind of person who would get 6/10 when answering the question 'what's your name?'.

"Hey, yeah, you're … Maddie, right? Prettiest sophomore?" He leered. He was probably a jock of some kind. "I'm the captain of the swim team." Got it in one. Madeline smiled while desperately trying to find a way to escape. The space behind her was emptiness, a three foot gap to the gravel bellow and there was no hope of making it back to the sliding doors.

"Care for a drink?" He drawled. Madeline could almost see the alcohol coming off him.

"No.. thank you for the offer." She squeaked out. Damn, why could she never be firm.

He eyed her up and down, lingering on her assets. Madeline suddenly felt a pang of empathy for Yeketerina. The boy raised his can of beer and 'spilled it' all on her chest. "Oh man, I'm so sorry. Here let me get that for you." He grabbed a napkin and began dab her chest. Madeline gasped when his dabbing turned into something that _definitely_ wasn't an attempt to dry her off.

"Stop it." She protested trying to pull his hand off. He grabbed her wrist as she tried to wriggle away. "Stop it!" Madeline began to frantically pull away but the boy leaned into her and-

"Let go of her! You dickweed!"

The yell was battle cry and the crowd parted to let the enraged shouter through.

The jock looked up in surprise, loosening his grip which was all Madeline needed to slap him with her free hand. Hard. He let go but Madeline was unbalanced already from trying to twist away from him and when he let she slipped backwards. Her arms came up to protect her face.

There was a crunch of gravel.

A yell.

And then a dull pain throbbing in her right arm.

Madeline lay there in the gravel, unsure of what was happening. There was a lot of shouting but who it was or what they were yelling about she had no idea. When she opened her eyes the world seemed spin and it was all blurred. Where were her glasses? She could feel a stinging in her leg and her arm felt too hot. Everything was muffled, as though sound had to travel through cotton wool to her ears.

"Holy shit! Her arm."

"Quickly someone call 911."

"I already did, mate, an ambulance is comin'."

"She fell, like two feet. What's the fuss about?"

"Shut up dick, it's your fault."

There was a blur of gold and pink above her.

"Maddie, Maddie stay awake j-just look at me. You're- you're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay. Just st-stay awake."

There was a loud squeal of a siren and blackness was creeping up around her vision. As Madeline passed out she murmured something.

"….melia.."

…

Madeline dimly remembered being in the ambulance, mostly the screaming siren and someone clutching her hand too tightly. She'd tried to tell them that but fell asleep before she could.

When she woke up properly, she was in a sterile room, lying in an uncomfortable bed and her arm felt oddly stiff. A hispanic nurse soon trotted over to have a look at her. "Oh Ms. William, you've woken up. How do you feel?"

"Urgh"

"Very good. Now I'm going to need to take you to check if you have any brain damage from your concussion."

"Cohnchushion?"

"Yes, miss, concussion. We'll just run a few tests, yes just lean on my shoulder, there you go. Now just follow me."

The nurse led Madeline to a small room and she sat on a chair. This was when she finally realised why her right arm felt so stiff. "Oh." She breathed, staring at the cast around her arm. She'd seen them all the time in movies and Jett had worn one after a summer vacation. Jett. The party. Oh shit.

The nurse winced in sympathy. "It's sore, isn't it? Don't worry about it. It was a nice, clean break and should heal nicely."

This was when the doctor walked in with the look of a women who had just run a marathon while writing an essay on the philosophy of Plato and cooking a three course meal, in other words over worked, she then introduced herself and Madeline immediate forgot her name. While the doctor began doing various tests; asking her simple questions, shining a light in her eyes; Madeline wondered if doctors thought that by saying the word 'nice' the patient would magically no longer be upset by the fact that they were injured. Injured. She was injured. Her. Madeline Williams. This week was just full of surprises. She'd always thought if one of them was going to break their arm, it'd be Amelia.

Actually, where was Amelia? Or her parents for that matter? Wasn't some family member supposed to come if you're in hospital. For legal reasons or something. And who had brought her to the hospital?

"Who brought me to hospital?" Madeline interrupted whatever the nurse was saying.

The nurse looked a bit taken aback, given how quiet Madeline had been up till this point. "You were taken here in a ambulance Your sister, Amelia Williams. That is correct, isn't it?"

"Yeah, she's my sister…" Madeline mumbled.

The nurse chuckled. "She's been very insistent about seeing you, she has quite the pair of lungs, but we couldn't allow any visitors until we were sure of your condition."

Madeline stared at her hands in her lap. Amelia wanted to see her. Of course, Madeline breaking her arm changed the exact situation but still Amelia had been shouting to see her. Madeline felt touched.

The doctor began to neatly pack away the tools. "My conclusion is that you have a mild concussion, nothing major but enough to make you rather groggy. I'd like for you to spend the night here and come back next week for a check up. You can arrange when tomorrow when you check out." The doctor sucked the pen thoughtfully as she continued to write down her diagnosis. "Marco, could you take her back to whatever bed she was in. I'm sure it won't already be full again. Thank you." The doctor rushed back outside.

The nurse began to lead Madeline outside and Madeline distantly heard the doctor complain about damn over time and downsizing. Madeline shrugged that off and turned her attention to the nurse. "Can… can I see my sister now?"

The nurse nodded. "I'm sure you can. Let's just get you settled down first then we'll see how you're feeling."

After Madeline got 'settled down' in the uncomfortable bed again, someone had replaced the sheets and made up the bed again during the short amount of time they'd been gone, she turned insistently to the nurse. "Now can I please see my sister." In Madeline's head it'd been a lot firmer but oh well, the nurse was already trotting off to fetch Amelia.

Madeline waited. She took this time to observe the room she was in. There were two other beds, both occupied. The bed nearest the door had a small brunette with a leg in a cast quietly reading a book, every so often she'd tremble uncontrollably, the other bed had a girl older than Madeline totally unconscious. Madeline's bed was closest to the window and with her good arm she twitches the curtain to see outside. A totally unremarkable car park draped in shadows lay outside. It was very dark outside. Madeline wondered how late it was. She'd certainly missed the dance but she found it hard to bring herself to care.

Madeline heard the approach of the nurse and Amelia. She turned just in time to see the door open and a bullet wearing a blue dress shoot through.

"Maddie!"

Amelia didn't so much stop at the bed as partially collide with it. She had the look of someone who had been crying hard but had been given some tissues, told 'there, there' and had a few minutes to clean up. Amelia started to go in for a hug then remembered Madeline's arm and settled for awkwardly patting her shoulder and then she started speaking so quickly the words were blurring into one another. "Oh my god Maddie I was so worried You weren't waking up and they wouldn't let me in and I needed to see you cos this is all my fault and-"

"Amelia, slow down." Madeline raised one hand placatingly. "I'm fine. Really. I'll just need to stay here overnight but that's all really."

Amelia managed to make pouting looked distressed. "But your arm- it's my fault." She was dangerously close to crying.

"How is it your fault?" Madeline was genuinely confused. "I slipped off the patio. It was accident."

Amelia but her lip and didn't meet her eyes, staring intently at the curtains until she burst. "Yeah, but I'm your sister. I'm supposed to look after you and I was being so stupid about the stupid List that I didn't look out for you. I'm sorry, Maddie. I'm so god damn sorry."

Madeline blinked. The apology. The one she'd been searching for for so long. And yet now that she had Amelia sniffling in front of her, begging for forgiveness, she realised that it wasn't important. "Amelia, I'm my own person. I should've been more careful but thank you for your apology."

"I decked him." Amelia said with great pride.

"I'm sorry, you did what?"

"The creep who was feeling you up. After you fell I decked him. I, er, might've broken his nose actually." Amelia sheepishly held up her hand. Bandages had been wrapped around her knuckles where she'd hit him. Madeline was actually rather impressed. Not that she'd show it. Encouraging Amelia to hit people was like encouraging America to invade random countries; likely to end badly for everyone and with disputes as to who's fault it was.

"Amelia, you shouldn't hit people." She looked rather abashed so Madeline figured she may as well throw the dog a bone. "But thank you. He was a total dick."

Amelia giggled and in response to Madeline look of enquiry explained. "You never swear. Im proud of you. Congratulations on your first time calling someone a dick."

"Oh shove off." Madeline playfully punched Amelia who continued laughing until suddenly stopping and looking deadly serious directly at Madeline.

"I meant what I said, Maddie. I am so sorry and I promise I will never, ever abandon you like I did." Amelia looked so sincere but Madeline couldn't help but think..

"… you promised that before high school and ditched me straight away." Oh god had she said that out loud? Evidently yes as Amelia looked like she'd been slapped. "Look, forget I said anything. It's fine."

"N-no. No it's not okay!" Amelia cut Madeline across. "You're right. I haven't been a good sister for far longer than just a week. You're right. I-I didn't realise how much of a failure of a sister I've been. You… you should hate me." She hung her head. "I wouldn't blame you. It took you breaking your arm to realise what a.. a.."

"Pig-headed egotist?" Madeline supplied Micky.

"Right, a pig-headed egotist. I don't deserve your forgiveness."

Perhaps if Madeline was a petty person she would have scorned Amelia's apology or make her deeply regret it but it wasn't in Madeline's nature. Even though sometimes she wanted to be able to hold grudges and hate people, she couldn't. This week long grudge was about all she could manage.

"Amelia" Amelia looked up, hope and fear fought for space on her face. "It's okay. You're not a bad sister or anything. You're just an idiot. We both are."

Amelia's face was filled with so much happiness that Madeline was genuinely worried that Amelia would start floating like a ballon. "Maddie, you have no idea how much I want to hug you." Amelia declared with a smile that seemed to light up the room. "Can I hug you?"

Madeline prepared herself. Amelia's hugs were on a different level to regular hugs. "Sure."

The bear hug wasn't Amelia's tightest but it still took the breath out of her.

"I love you, sis."

Madeline tapped Amelia on the shoulder as she began running out of air and Amelia sheepishly released her.

Madeline gave Amelia a grin and asked a question that had been at the back of her head since Thursday. "So….. Kiku."

Amelia blushed then tried to hide the blush by ducking under her head. "What about Kiku?" She mumbled.

Madeline grinned slyly. "I was just wondering what you and him were doing in the library."

"Studying!"

"I never said when in the library." Madeline crowed her victory as Amelia's face turned scarlet.

"Okay, you got me." Amelia's face was beetroot red as she started talking. "I just… well he's really nice guy. Like, he's a dork but he's my dork. And anyway it's really cute when he talks about mechas and I couldn't believe when he said he liked me too. And sure we may have, um, kissed and stuff in the library during lunch but he's just so awkward and nice. Oh, oh and his hair is super soft and really fun to play with and he really.."

Too late Madeline realised she'd opened a damn but really she didn't mind. It was just nice to lie in a bed with Amelia sitting beside it talking to her. Tomorrow she'd have to go home and explain why she had a cast. She would also have to make sure that when Amelia signed it she didn't take up all the space. She should also find out who exactly the ducking jock was. If she passed his name on to Francine and Alice then he'd soon find himself with not just a broken nose. But these weren't things to think about now. Right now there was just Amelia talking to her.

 **Hey, so I meant to upload this a month ago but then my wifi decided to die and before that I was in New Zealand (Very nice place, would recommend although christ the flight was long) for a month so there's your explanation for the lateness. Also Amelia and Madeline are precious.**


	24. author's note

**Author's Note**

 **Oh boy, it's... it's been awhile hasn't it. Okay so this fic is not quite dead but on life support. There are many reasons and we're going to go through them so...**

 **Part 1: School**

 **When I first started writing this, I was in the middle of a doss year and had more free time than I knew what to do with. I am now going into my final year of school complete with all the stress an education defining exam like The Leaving Cert will do and as such I won't be posting too much. The past year has also been very busy on the schoolwork side and I've barely had time to breathe let alone write this. It's been ... urgh. Not great. (Understatement of the fucking decade)**

 **Part 2: Why that was the understatement of the fucking decade**

 **To be blunt, my mental health took sky dive from 'not great' to 'symptoms of GAD'. I don't particaurly want to go into it and if you're interested you can look up GAD but let's just say it's not great and it makes actually being productive really hard. I'm very lucky though as I have a lot of support and I am seeing someone and it was caught before it could become a fullfledged disorder. Needless to say, I had to put this fic to the back of my proirities so it didn't end up joining the parade of things I needed to do otherwise I was a failure of person. Please allow me to be able to not make this a priority in my life. This has always been a passion project and I don't want that ruined by having it cause me anxiety.**

 **Part 3: Less Heavy Real Life Stuff**

 **I was also just really busy. I was involved with several plays and I got a job and I kept falling sick. Like I was sick A LOT. It was crazy. Like I had tonsilitus and the flu AT THE SAME TIME. It was nuts.**

 **Part 4: Shifting Fandoms**

 **Sadly I have found myself slipping into other fandoms and Hetalia is no longer my main fanfiction hub and I no longer spend time reading hetalia fanfics. It will always hold a very special place in my heart but I have escaped hell (hetalia).**

 **So, I hear you ask (that's right, I'm psychic), what now?**

 **Well... I have still been working on chapter 23 (and when that's completed it'll be replacing this) however I am only about a third of the way through so don't expect it too soon. What I can do, because I HATE unfinished stories, is summarise what'll happen in the last few chapters so you will know what happened and then if I ever get around to finishing those chapter then there'll be a summary and a chapter. So let me know if you want me to do that or wait indeffintely for me to update.**

 **Thank you to everyone who's read this, reviewed, sent me messages and everything. I rreally do appreciate all of it. And to those people who just found this fic and read through it, know that this fic is not dead and it will not be dead until its complete. (If that makes sense)**


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